Sara Finney image

 

Associate Director for Student Affairs Assessment; Professor of Graduate Psychology
finneysj@jmu.edu
Contact Info

Full Curriculum Vita (PDF)
Google Scholar Page 

Education


  • Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2001) Concentration: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods (Statistics & Measurement)
  • M.A., University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1997) Concentration: Educational Psychology/ Statistics, Measurement, Research Design
  • B.A., University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (1994) Concentration: Psychology

Scholarly Interests/Research Topics


  • Examinee motivation and reactions to testing
  • Use of structural equation modeling to gather validity evidence for score interpretations
CARS Faculty/Assessment Specialist Role:

Since 2001, Dr. Finney has been providing outcomes assessment-related support to professionals in the Division of Student Affairs at James Madison University. Currently, she oversees the Student Affairs Assessment Support Services (SASS) team. SASS aims to enhance the assessment capacity of student affairs professionals who coordinate programs with student learning and development outcomes.  Fulfillment of this mission occurs via direct consultation, educational activities, and the dissemination of scholarly work relevant to assessment practices. Dr. Finney's work evaluating the effectiveness of university educational programming has garnered four national awards from the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Association (NASPA). Dr. Finney has published over 75 articles and chapters, with graduate students co-authoring over 75% of these publications. She has also contributed to the revision of the CAS Standards. Her research involves the incorporation of implementation fidelity assessment during the outcomes assessment process, the study of test-taking motivation and emotions during institutional accountability testing, and the application of latent variable modeling techniques to better understand the measurement of psychoeducational constructs. Her research has appeared in such journals as Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, Research & Practice in Assessment, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Applied Measurement in Education, and Educational Assessment. 

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