The ACS Examinations Institute is unique among academic disciplines. It produces nationally normed exams for most chemistry courses, ranging from high school through the entire undergraduate chemistry curriculum in the United States. Many graduate programs use ACS Exams to measure the content knowledge of students starting graduate school.

All ACS Exams are created by committees of educators who teach the course for which an exam is intended. No governance body of the American Chemical Society dictates content coverage of any exam. In this sense, while the exams produced by the Institute can rightfully be called standardized exams, they are the result of volunteer, grass-roots efforts from teachers “in the trenches”. Few, if any, standardized tests in the US are derived from such a format.

Organization

The Examinations Institute has two tiers of leadership:

• Test and Product Development; Intellectual Property Protection; and Research and Development
• Business Operations

The Director (Kristen Murphy) leads these efforts with the individual leads of the major groups:

• Test and Product Development; Intellectual Property Protection; and Research and Development
  • Jaclyn Trate, Associate Director of Test Development
  • Olga Michels, Associate Director of Product Development
  • Sachin Nedungadi, Associate Director of Research

These efforts are further supported by:

• • David Schreurs, Psychometrician and Test Specialist

 

• Business Operations: Cherie Mayes, Business Operations Manager

These efforts are further supported by:

• • Sarah Loving, Office Clerk
  • Steve Koester, Shipping Clerk

 

Leadership

Kristen Murphy is a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she also currently serves as department chair in chemistry and biochemistry.  She has been involved with ACS Exams since 2005 serving as Associate Director until 2015.  She has been Director since 2015.  In addition, Kristen leads a research group at her home institution studying scale literacy, persistence in the STEM majors, and differential item functioning on assessments.  As Director, she leads the team on all efforts from test and new product development, research and development to marketing, score reporting and intellectual property protection. You can contact Kristen at kmurphy@uwm.edu about anything related to ACS Exams.

Jackie Trate is the Instructional Innovator in the Chemistry Department at UW-Madison where she leads faculty and instructor teams on the development and coordination of curriculum and instructional and assessment materials.  She has been involved with ACS Exams as a post-doctoral researcher and technical editor where she expanded her expertise of psychometrics and measurements of representational and model competency.  As the Associate Director of Test Development, she leads efforts on developing new exams, supporting current exams and reporting as well as work with the team on developing new products. You can contact Jackie at trate@wisc.edu about current and new tests.

Olga Michels is a professor of chemistry at Luther College in Decorah, IA, where she has been on the faculty for 20 years and currently serves as department head in chemistry.  She has been involved with ACS Exams since the OR18 committee, served on the OR20 committee and chaired the OR23 committee. She also served as an Ashford fellow with the ACS EI in the 2019-2020 academic year.  As the Associate Director of Product Development, she leads efforts on determining the need and developing new study materials as well as work with the team on developing new exams and exam reports. You can contact Olga at olga.michels@luther.edu about current and new products.

Sachin Nedungadi is an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Nebraska-Omaha since 2021 where his research is focused on developing and validating assessment tools and understanding difficulties students face with organic chemistry.  He has been involved with ACS Exams as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for 2020-2021 working on calibration of measures and studying item-order effects.  As the Associate Director of Research, he leads research efforts related to assessment as well as work with the team on developing new exams and exam reports. You can contact Sachin at snedungadi@unomaha.edu about current and future research projects.

 

Expertise and Support

David Schreurs has been with ACS Exams since 2022.  He was a post-doctoral researcher in 2022-2023 and was hired as the Psychometrician and Test Specialist in 2023.  He has worked on modeling: partial credit, scoring techniques, preliminary norms, norms for custom or specialty exams, incorporation of real data into modeled norms and norms for active exams with incomplete samples.  As Psychometrician and Test Specialist, he will continue this work expanding into score reporting and work with the team on research and development and new products.  You can contact David at schreurd@uwm.edu about anything related to psychometrics and reporting.

 

Sarah Loving has been with ACS Exams since 2022.  She works with the team on exam and study material sales.  You can contact Sarah at acsexams@examsinstitute.org or at 800-854-1672 with any questions related to exam or study materials sales.

 

Steve Koester has been with ACS Exams since 2018.  He works with the team on shipping and inventory of all products.  You can contact Steve at acsexams@examsinstitute.org or at 800-854-1672 with any questions related to shipping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The operations of the Examinations Institute are overseen by the Board of Trustees – a committee of the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society.

How to Become Involved

The value of assessment materials to the chemical education community is a direct result of volunteer efforts of hundreds of high school and college chemistry educators from throughout the United States. The programs of the Examinations Institute provide an excellent way to become involved in national programs of the Division of Chemical Education, and we always welcome volunteers. The best way to begin is to offer your service on a test committee in your area of specialization. Send an email message to: acsexams@examsinstitute.org with your name, complete address (including phone and email), and a short paragraph describing your professional background and teaching situation.