Chris Domaleski: New Executive Director

Chris Domaleski becomes the Center for Assessment’s executive director on Sept. 18, after 10 years as associate director and seven years as a senior associate. Several weeks before the transition, he sat down (virtually) with the Center’s editorial director, Catherine Gewertz, to talk about his plans and priorities. You can read or listen to their conversation below.

Chris, it’s so good to be with you. I’m excited to talk to you about the leadership transition.

Thank you.

Let me ask you … first of all, congratulations on becoming our executive director in just a few weeks. You’re taking on this role at a very eventful time in education policy, to say the least. And I’m wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your priorities for the Center in the next, I don’t know, one to three years.

Okay, well, thank you for that. And first, I want to recognize that I think the Center stands on a strong foundation that’s really built by the vision and leadership of those that came before me, including Rich Hill, Brian Gong and Scott Marion. And I just wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t start by saying I’m deeply grateful for them and our current team of outstanding professionals; their talent, dedication have really driven the Center’s success and influence over the years.

I’m not stepping into this role with the intention of making sweeping changes. From the beginning, our mission has been to improve student learning by partnering with education leaders to design and support high quality assessment and accountability systems, and that mission remains as vital today as ever, perhaps even more so.

But that said, it’s essential for the Center to define and pursue priorities and strategies that align with current context and emerging trends in our field. And Catherine, I thought of three areas that I’d want to emphasize in this to respond to your invitation to talk about vision.

The first is artificial intelligence. AI, as everybody knows, is rapidly transforming how students learn, and it’s opening up new possibilities for assessment. I think the Center is going to need to be ready to help states leverage the benefits of AI for areas such as content generation, scoring, analysis, feedback, and also guard against unintended negative consequences. And equally important, I think the Center needs to be prepared to articulate and defend the uniquely human role in learning and assessment as the influence of AI grows. So those are some areas related to AI.

The second is balanced assessment systems. We’ve long focused on balanced assessment systems at the Center, and I want to deepen that work and refine our guidance to help develop practical models that states and districts can implement. Now our partnerships with states, I think, remain central to our mission, but I think there’s a significant opportunity to expand our support and include districts in the coming years.

And then finally, accountability systems. In the area of accountability, I’d like to see the Center broaden its efforts to more effectively link accountability to meaningful supports for schools and districts. We should also provide guidance and monitoring and evaluation to monitor the effectiveness of accountability systems, ensuring that states and districts can adopt the most promising practices.

Throughout it all—I’ll just close with this—the Center will continue to uphold our commitment to equity, ground our strategies in rigorous research and communicate our insights in ways that diverse audiences can understand and apply.

Terrific. Thank you for that. You know, you may be new to the executive director role, but you’re hardly new to the Center. You’ve been with us many years as an associate director, and you’ve worked with dozens of state clients and education organizations. What strengths, leadership styles do you think you’re best known for?

Well, thanks. It’s true, I’ve been with the Center almost 17 years now, and over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working on a wide range of projects and making meaningful contributions along the way. My background is rooted in large-scale assessment, and I remain deeply committed to helping states design and implement practices that enhance the reliability, validity and fairness of statewide tests.

I also have significant experience working on assessments for students with significant cognitive disabilities. That’s a field that continues to be a priority and a personal passion for me. I’m also keenly interested in improving how score reports are developed and how assessment results are communicated to ensure they’re clear, useful and actionable.

I’ve contributed to innovative accountability designs, collaborating with colleagues to develop models for setting performance standards within accountability systems. And there’s still a lot of important work to be done in this area, and I’m eager to keep pushing it forward. But at my core, I would describe myself as a researcher. I’m driven to explore how we can better understand what works and how to support ongoing improvement in education systems.

With respect to leadership, I would say, as a leader, I’m committed to building an environment where our team can think creatively and work collaboratively to tackle meaningful challenges in our field, all while growing professionally.

We like to say at the Center [that] we’re far more than a group of independent consultants. We’re a team whose collective strengths make us better together, and I’m dedicated to nurturing a culture rooted in curiosity and continuous learning, where we can advance through research, insights from practice and open, honest and respectful dialog.

Terrific. What about outside the Center? What’s important to you in your life outside the Center? What kind of guy are you?

Thanks for that. Outside of work, I’m very much a family guy. I’ve been married for over 30 years, and I’ve got three adult children and one grandchild, and nothing makes me happier than spending time with them.

Beyond family life, I enjoy running, usually with a good podcast in my ears, and I love reading and watching sports, especially football and soccer.

When it comes to food, I’m definitely the opposite of a foodie. While I won’t say no to a nice meal, I’m perfectly content with a grilled cheese sandwich. On most days, my colleagues like to joke that they’re going to revoke my menu-picking privileges for staff meals. So, pretty straightforward in my interests and hobbies.

I’m tempted to say that’s delicious, but I’ll just say that’s delightful.