Dr. Bisa Batten Lewis and Dr. Richard S. Brown Join the Council

May 22, 2024

Dr. Bisa Batten Lewis

The Council is pleased to welcome Dr. Bisa Batten Lewis as Director of ECE Competence and Practice. Dr. Bisa, as she is known, is a renowned public speaker and best-selling author in a wide range of formats: articles on parenting and education, college textbooks, children’s books, early childhood curricula and motivational books for early childhood teachers. Everything she writes reflects real-life experience because Dr. Bisa has served as an early childhood teacher and administered many child development centers, including lab schools, Head Start and Georgia’s Pre-K program. She has also served as an early childhood instructor and dean at the college level, president at an Atlanta affiliate of the National Black Child Development Institute and lead author of the CDA Handbook for High School.

This diverse background has given Dr. Bisa a strong grasp of what it takes to provide high-quality, research-based services in the early childhood classroom. She also knows the challenges that educators can face as they seek to earn the qualifications required to advance in the early learning field. So, she has championed articulation agreements that allow CDA holders to earn credits at institutions of higher ed and been a firm advocate of equity for the members of the early childhood field. Dr. Bisa is also a staunch advocate for children and wants to ensure that young learners have the competent teachers they need. That’s also the Council’s goal, so Dr. Bisa is excited to join us. “The Council is insightful,” she says, “listens closely to the concerns of our early childhood educators and is committed to meeting their needs.”

As Director of ECE Competence and Practice, she will lead the ongoing review and application for relevance of the CDA Competency Standards and elevate the awareness, utilization, and facilitation of communities of practice.

 


Dr. Richard S. Brown

The Council is pleased to welcome Dr. Richard S. Brown as its new Director of Psychometrics and research. Dr. Brown earned his M.B.A. from the University of California, Irvine and Ph.D. in advanced quantitative methods from the University of California, Los Angeles. He offers more than 20 years of statistical and analytical expertise, mainly in the areas of research design, test development, quantitative analysis and psychometrics. Dr. Brown has been a faculty member at the USC Rossier School of Education, director of the Center for Research in Educational Assessment and Measurement in the Department of Education, University of California, Irvine, and senior researcher at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing at UCLA.

His role in assessing education has also extended beyond California to make an impact nationwide. He has served the National Assessment Governing Board as a reviewer and advisor for the board’s plans to commission studies on alignment between college readiness exams and the National Assessment of Educational Progress. He has also served on numerous technical advisory committees for educational policy and research, including the Standardized Testing and Reporting program for the California Department of Education, the IES-funded Regional Education Laboratory for the Mid-Atlantic region, the Assessing Data Modeling project at Vanderbilt University, and the National Inspection, Testing, and Certification Corporation. In addition, he served on the board of directors at the Education Policy Improvement Center and as chief research scientist for The National Math + Science Initiative—leading to a wide range of experience that will advance the Council’s mission. “The role of a psychometrician for a credentialing organization is to document and ensure that the credentialing process is valid, reliable and fair for all candidates,” he says. “I look forward to bringing that perspective to the Council.”

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