Theodore Christ

Dr. Christ is the Yackel Professor of Assessment and Measurement in Educational Psychology, co-director of the Research Institute on Problem Solving, and director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI), which are all located at the University of Minnesota. He is engaged in the development, evaluation, and refinement of assessments and guidance to use data to improve educational systems, professional practices, and student outcomes. This includes research and development of technology-based and data-driven interventions to remediate risk and disability-based academic deficits in reading and math.

He and his colleagues received more than $15 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Education for research and development. Dr. Christ has more than 70 peer-refereed publications, 12 authored tests, and 100 national peer reviewed presentations.

Dr. Christ serves on a host of editorial boards where he contributes his expertise with regard to data use in schools. Dr. Christ received the 2008 Lightner Witmer Award from Division 16 of the American Psychological Association for outstanding early career scholarship.

He consults with federal, state and nongovernmental agencies and is the founder and chief scientific officer of FastBridge Learning (aka. Formative Assessment System for Teachers, or FAST). FAST emerged from the research and development work of Dr. Christ and colleagues at the University of Minnesota. It is now used in 40 states around the country and internationally. There were more than 20 million administrations of FAST in the 2016-17 academic year. 

(see UMN Experts)

Roles and contributions

Dr. Christ is the director of the Formative Assessment System for Teachers Lab (FAST Lab). He is the co-director of the Research Institute for Problem Solving (RIPS). He is also the chief scientific officer at FastBridge Learning, which supports the distribution and use of the Formative Assessment System for Teachers (FAST). 

Advising

Dr. Christ accepts one or two Ph.D. students as advisees in the school psychology program on an annual basis. Those advisees engage in study, research, and development related to technology mediated assessment and intervention. The current focus in on personalized and automated academic interventions, especially in reading and mathematics.