As we look back on the recently ended 2023 NAEP Doctoral Internship Program, one more intern from this most recent cohort has worked with us to share her experience with the program and a bit about herself. Radhika Kapoor had an exciting summer working with NAEP data and tools with the experts, and now she’s reflected on and answered a few questions for the NAEP research community. 

1. Where did you join the internship from? 

I joined the internship from Stanford in Palo Alto. I also spent some time in New York in the summer. 

2. What is your educational background? 

I am a rising fourth-year Ph.D. student in education. My education and training were in economics―I am a product of Delhi School of Economics. I worked in education research, policy, and education technology, which was important for understanding the problems people were working on. I realized I am interested in working on research that supports practitioners in their work to improve education quality and equity. My current research at Stanford uses a mix of methods from economics, measurement, and data science to support this goal.   

3. What are your research topics of interest? 

My research interests lie in assessment and measurement, and my internship was with the process data team. Digital assessments generate process data when students interact with online items, and I believe that this is one of the most authentic methods for understanding students’ interactions with assessments. My research interests lie in applying a mix of methods from psychometrics, economics, and data science to improve measurement and to help it inform policy. 

4. What projects have you been working on outside of the internship that you’re excited about? 

I am working on a project that examines group differences in response time as an alternate method for assessing group differences in test scores (i.e., it examines whether in-group differences in test scores can be attributed to test-taking behavior instead of being fully attributable to ability). I am also working on a project that examines how international tests can possibly be linked to get information about education outcomes from more countries. I am also interested in applying machine learning methods, such as natural language processing, to classroom observation data to offer formative feedback to teachers.   

5. What drew you to the internship? 

I was interested in working with the process data team because they are at the cutting edge of their work. I was interested in learning from industry experts on how they are using process data to gain insight into student behavior during tests. 

6. How do you hope to use what you learned in the internship? 

I hope to apply my experience from the internship to my graduate research work. This includes using process mining methods with other available data as well as linking it with psychometric models. I will also try to incorporate what I learned about equity and positionality in quantitative research. 

7. What hobbies/special interests/fun facts would you like to share? 

I like to read—I was reading nonfiction for a while, but I’m coming back to fiction—take hikes, and explore food places in my free time. I have been learning to play tennis and practice yoga. I am the opposite of a natural when it comes to sports and athletics, but I’ve been having fun with it! 

The NAEP R&D team was thrilled with this year’s batch of interns, and we look forward to meeting our next cohort! Check out the NAEP Doctoral Internship Program for yourself and sign up for our mailing list to stay up to date on future opportunities like this one.