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Alumnus Magda Chía (EECD, 2012) has been appointed Director of Systems Design at the . For almost two years, Dr. Chía was Director of Support for Under-Represented Students. In her new position, she will coordinate the work of the English language learners and Students with Disabilities assessment divisions and the English Language Arts and Mathematics assessment divisions.

According to Professor Guillermo Solano-Flores, who served as Dr. Chía's advisor while at CU Boulder, "Magda’s promotion speaks to the high quality of her work at Smarter Balanced. It also is important because it establishes a critical precedent in the organization of assessment systems—that someone with leadership in services to historically under-served students can be promoted to a position overseeing the work of multiple assessment units. This promotion facilitates the enactment of an important notion in equity in assessment—that, if we are serious about fair, valid assessment, students with special needs should be considered throughout the entire process of assessment development."

Dr. Chía is the inaugural alumnus of the Miramontes Doctoral Scholars Program, a scholarship established in honor of Professor Ofelia Miramontes's distinguished contributions to the School of Education and to the field of bilingual and culturally diverse education.