Gina Biancarosa is the Ann Swindells Chair in Education and a full professor in the Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences in the College of Education at the University of Oregon. She also retains a courtesy appointment in the Quantitative Research Methods in Education PhD program. Biancarosa currently serves on the UO Institutional Review Board. She conducts her research at the Center on Teaching and Learning.

Biancarosa’s research centers on questions related to more precise and informative measurement of reading, especially of reading comprehension, and modeling of growth in reading over time. To date, she has led the development of MOCCA, a diagnostic measure of cognitive processes involved in reading comprehension for Grades 3-5, and DIBELS 8th Edition, which now covers kindergarten through eighth grade and offers better precision and more information for teachers than previous editions. Biancarosa’s research has been published in top peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of Educational Measurement, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Assessment for Effective Intervention, Journal of School Psychology, Reading and Writing, Learning and Individual Differences, and Elementary School Journal. She serves as an Associate Editor of the British Journal of Educational Psychology, on the editorial boards of Educational Assessment, Elementary School Journal, and Reading Research Quarterly, and has served as a reading, adolescent literacy, and applied measurement expert on several review panels, including panels for IES, NAEP, PISA, and the Oregon Department of Education.

Before coming to UO, she was a reading specialist and after-school teacher in Massachusetts and completed her Master’s and Doctoral studies in Language and Literacy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She also completed a three-year Institute of Education Sciences (IES) sponsored post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University. She has received over $8 million in external funding for her research from IES, the Spencer Foundation, the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, and Carnegie Corporation of New York, as well as over $100,000 in internal funding for curricular and research endeavors at UO. Biancarosa regularly teaches courses on measurement and assessment and applied statistics, as well as occasional courses on reading theory and methods.

This faculty member is interested in having a new doctoral student for the 2025-2026 academic year.

EdD, 2006, Harvard University
Major: Language and Literacy, 2006

EdM, 1999, Harvard University
Major: Language and Literacy

BA, 1992, Boston College, summa cum laude
Major: English Literature

2024 Significant Contribution to Educational Measurement and Research Methodology Award, American Educational Research Association, Division D: Measurement and Research Methodologies

2023 Outstanding Service, University of Oregon, College of Education, School Psychology Program

2021 Distinguished Excellence in Research/Outreach, University of Oregon College of Education

2016 Ann Swindells Chair in Education

2016 Spencer Midcareer Training Grant, Spencer Foundation

2015 Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Oregon, College of Education

2005 Selected Participant, Fourth European Graduate School on Reading Research

2002 – 2005 Spencer Research Training Grant, Harvard Graduate School of Education

2000 – 2001 Roy E. Larsen Award, Harvard Graduate School of Education

1989 Golden Key National Honor Society Inductee

1989 Phi Beta Kappa Inductee

1987 Gasson Scholar, Boston College

Furjanic, D., Ives, C., Fainstein, D., Kennedy, P. C., & Biancarosa, G. (2024). The COVID-19 pandemic and oral reading fluency. Elementary School Journal.

Davison, M. L., Weiss, D. J., DeWeese, J. N., Cinar, O.E., Biancarosa, G., & Kennedy, P. C. (2023). A diagnostic tree model for adaptive assessment of complex cognitive processes using multidimensional response options. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics.

Pearson, P. D., Palincsar, A. S., Biancarosa, G., & Berman, A. I. (2020). Reaping the Rewards of the Reading for Understanding Initiative. Washington, DC: National Academy of Education.

Cervetti, G. N., Pearson, P. D., Palincsar, A. S., Afflerbach, P., Kendeou, P., Biancarosa, G., Higgs, J., Fitzgerald, M. S., & Berman, A. (2020). How the Reading for Understanding initiative’s research complicates the Simple View of Reading invoked in the science of reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 55, S161-172. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.343

Baker, D. L., Santoro, L., Biancarosa, G., Baker, S. K., Fien, H., & Otterstedt, J. (2020).  Effects of a Read Aloud Intervention on First Grade Student Vocabulary, Listening Comprehension, and Language Proficiency. Reading and Writing. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1007/s11145-020-10060-2

Shanley, L., Biancarosa, G., Clarke, B., & Goode, J. (2019). Relations between mathematics achievement growth and the development of self-concept in elementary and middle grades. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 59. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.101804

Biancarosa, G., Kennedy, P. C., Carlson, S. E., Yoon, H. J., Seipel, B., Liu, B., & Davison, M. L. (2019). Constructing subscores that add validity: A case study of identifying students at-risk. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 79, 65-84. doi: 10.1177/0013164418763255

LeRoux, M., Zvoch, K., & Biancarosa, G. (2018). Using curriculum-based measurement to predict student performance on an eighth-grade state reading assessment. Assessment for Effective Intervention. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/1534508418815749

Schuetz, R. L., Biancarosa, G., & Goode, J. (2018). Is technology the answer?: Investigating students’ engagement in math. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 50, 318-332. doi: 10.1080/15391523.2018.1490937

Fritz, R., Harn, B., Biancarosa, G., Lucero, A., & Flannery, K. B. (2018). How Much is Enough? Evaluating Intervention Implementation Efficiently. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 44, 135-144. doi: 10.1177/1534508418772909

Gina Biancarosa has a wide range of methodological expertise, including, but not limited to: research design, hierarchical linear modeling, longitudinal growth modeling, and Rasch and IRT models. Her current research focuses on the validation of a computer-adaptive edition of MOCCA (https://blogs.uoregon.edu/mocca/), a unique, online, diagnostic assessment of reading comprehension, and the development of literacy screeners in Alaska Native languages (https://blogs.uoregon.edu/alaska/). She also maintains a student-oriented research seminar focused on measurement of reading processes and skills. This seminar focuses on these projects, as well as understanding national trends in reading, innovative measurement of reading, and the continued validation of DIBELS 8th Edition (https://dibels.uoregon.edu/).