Trustee
Dr. Daniel Foertsch has professional experience across 45 years in educational research, assessment & psychometrics, standardized test development, K-12 school & program evaluation, school technology, system administration, and private school operations. Throughout his career, Foertsch has also worked as an independent consultant for non-profit and profit organizations.
Foertsch was a program evaluator at the University of Illinois for an ELL pilot initiative implemented throughout the Chicago Public Schools. As Director of Data and Research at the Office of Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Foertsch oversaw the system-wide summative assessment for all elementary schools, led assessment initiatives, directed the implementation of a system student information system, oversaw survey operations of schools, led internal research, ensured the compliance of IRB and Archdiocesan requirements for any research done in schools, and led the development and evaluation of the Archdiocesan strategic plan.
As Director of Research Technology at the National Study of School Evaluation, Foertsch overhauled and streamlined its data reporting services used in school accreditation under the six US regional K-12 accreditation commissions. As Visiting Assistant Professor at National-Louis University, he taught Masters and Doctorate education students and served on faculty committees, including the department committee for the NCATE accreditation process.
As Senior Project Director, Foertsch led the development of clinical assessments at Riverside Publishing. Activities included writing product proposals, serving on the publications board, working with subject matter experts on development of assessment instruments, editing, standardization research, psychometric and statistical analyses, production, marketing, and support. As Research Scientist at Law School Admissions Services, he researched the effectiveness of test preparation methods on the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT).
Foertsch received his B.S. in Psychology at Loyola University Chicago. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He worked as a research assistant at the Center for the Study of Reading (CSR) during his graduate studies. He also served on the editorial boards for two of CSR’s refereed research periodicals. Foertsch holds an executive scholar certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Kellogg School of Management – Center for Nonprofit Management at Northwestern.