Russell Swinburne Romine

Russell Swinburne Romine
  • ATLAS Deputy Director

Contact Info

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Biography —

Russell Swinburne Romine, PhD, is the deputy director of Accessible Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Systems (ATLAS), a research center at the University of Kansas with more than 150 staff and more than $20M in annual revenues. He earned a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota and has worked in the field of assessments for students with disabilities since coming to KU in 2012 where he has contributed to the design, development and growth of the The Dynamic Learning Maps® (DLM®) Alternate Assessment System. 

Swinburne Romine oversees ATLAS's day-to-day operations and works on a variety of research and assessment projects, focusing especially on improving outcomes for students with disabilities. He has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on funded projects totalling more than $15 million from the United States Department of Education. His work has focused specifically on using learning maps as architectures for designing and developing research-based teaching and assessment tools. He has experience applying evidence-centered design and universal design for learning in large-scale assessments as well as using formal learning models to design interventions to improve teaching an learning for students with extensive support needs.

He is a member of the American Educational Research Association, the National Council on Measurement in Education, the Council for Exceptional Children, and the Council of Chief State School Officers Assessments, Standards and Education for Students with Disabilities National Collaborative.

Education —

Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota

Selected Publications —

Nash, B., Karvonen, M., Flowers, C., Clark, A., Romine, R.S. and Bechard, S. (2026), A Comprehensive Alignment Framework for Building Coherence in an Assessment System. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 45: e70027. https://doi.org/10.1111/emip.70027

Swinburne Romine, R., Schuster, J., Karvonen, M., Thompson, W. J., Erickson, K., Simmering, V., & Bechard, S. (2025). Learning Maps as Cognitive Models for Instruction and Assessment. Education Sciences, 15(3), 365.

Karvonen, M., Swinburne Romine, R. & Clark, A., (2024) Response Process Evidence for Academic Assessments of Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation 29(1): 13.

Kingston, N., Hess, J., Cope, D., & Swinburne Romine, R. (2021). On determining the efficacy of using learning maps as an organizing structure for formative assessments. In J. Hong & R. W. Lissitz (Eds.), Enhancing effective instruction and learning using assessment data (pp. 149–166). Information Age Publishing.

Koebley, S., Swinburne Romine, R., McCann, M., & Glore, C. (2020). Interim report on development and  revision of essential elements in science for the Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment System (Technical Report No. 20-04). University of Kansas, Accessible Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Systems.

Bechard, S., Clark, A., Swinburne Romine, R., Karvonen, M., Kingston, N., & Erickson, K. (2019). Use of  evidence-centered design to develop learning maps-based assessments. International Journal of Testing 19:2, 188-205, DOI: 10.1080/15305058.2018.1543310.

Swinburne Romine, R., Andersen, L., Schuster, J., & Karvonen, M. (2018). Developing and Evaluating Learning Map Models in Science: Evidence from the I-SMART project. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, Center for Accessible Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Systems (ATLAS).

Swinburne Romine, R. (2016). Instructionally Embedded Assessments (Research Brief #16-01) Lawrence, Kansas: Achievement & Assessment Institute. 

Clark, A., Swinburne Romine, R., Bell, B., & Karvonen, M. (2015). Results from external review during the 2014–2015 academic year (Technical Report No. 15-01). Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation.

Clark, A., Karvonen, M., & Swinburne Romine, R. (2014). Results from external review during the 2013–2014 academic year (Technical Report No. 14-02). Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation.

Lea, R. B., Rapp, D. N., Elfenbein, A., Mitchel, A. D., & Swinburne Romine, R. (2008). Sweet silent thought: Alliteration and resonance in poetry comprehension. Psychological Science, 19, 709-716.

Selected Presentations —

Christensen, L., Klein, K., Huff, L., Reasoner, D., Swinburne Romine, R., & Sato, E. (2024, June 24-26). Stop the Retrofit: What Do Equitable and Inclusive Assessments Need to Look Like? National Conference of Student Assessment, Seattle, WA, United States.

Swinburne Romine, R. & Thatcher, E. (2024, February 29-March 2). Differentiating Writing Instruction for Students with Disabilities. Pennsylvania Department of Education Annual Conference, Hershey, PA, United States.

Ruhter, L., Swinburne Romine, R., & Karvonen, M (2023, December 1). Models of Instructional Cycles for Students with Complex Support Needs [Breakout session]. 2023 TASH Conference, Baltimore, MD, United States.

Swinburne Romine, R., Durando, J., & Karvonen, M. (2023, July 24-26). Academics for Students with Extensive Support Needs. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Leadership and Project Directors Conference, Arlington, VA, United States. 

Swinburne Romine, R., & Thatcher, E. (2022, January 16-19). Shared writing instruction for students with intellectual disabilities an evidence-based approach for K-6 writers [Conference Poster]. Council for Exceptional Children, Orlando, FL, United States.

Schuster, J., Clark A. K., & Swinburne Romine, R. (2021, March 8-13). Developing effective writing instruction for students with significant cognitive disabilities [Multi-presentation session]. Council for Exceptional Children Annual Meeting, Virtual

Wakeman, S., Lemons, C., & Swinburne Romine, R. (2021, March 8-13). Updates! OSEP Model Demonstration Projects- Improving Literacy of Students With Intellectual Disabilities [Conference presentation]. Council for Exceptional Children, Annual Meeting, Virtual

Lemons, C., Swinburne Romine, R., & Wakeman, S. (2020, February). Improving Literacy of Students with Intellectual Disabily via OSEP Model Demonstration Projects. Presentation at the Council for Exceptional Children Annual Meeting, Portland, OR.

Andersen, L. & Swinburne Romine, R. (2019, April). Iterative design and stakeholder evaluation of learning map models. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement In Education, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

Karvonen, M., & Swinburne Romine, R. (2019, April). Grounding the design of a large-scale alternate assessment in learning map models. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

Schuster, J., Swinburne Romine, R., & Clark, A. (2019, April). Writing instruction and assessment for struggling learners. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

Swinburne Romine, R. & Schuster, J. (2019, April). Learning maps as models of the content domain. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

Swinburne Romine, R., Schuster, J., & Karvonen, M. (2017, April). Using learning map models with principles of evidence-centered design. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Antonio, Texas.

Grants & Other Funded Activity —

Funded Projects

Cope, D. (PI), Swinburne Romine, R. (co-PI) Kim, E. (co-PI). Learning Maps for Mathematics in a Cultural Context. Grant awarded to Calista Education and Culture (10/1/25-9/30-2030, $2,928,762 contract to University of Kansas Center for Research).

Swinburne Romine, R., (PI). National Center on Deafblindness. U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs. Grant Awarded to Helen Keller National Center (10/1/23-9/30/24, $89,990 subaward to the University of Kansas Center for Research).Swinburne Romine, R. (PI), Karvonen, M. (co-PI). Shared Writing Instructional Model (SWIM) for Students with Intellectual Disabilities. (1/2019-12/2023, 1,599,859).

Nash, B. (PI), Swinburn Romine, R. (co-PI), Kim, E. (co-PI). Pathways for Instructionally Embedded Assessment (PIE). U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education/Office of State Support and Accountability. Grant awarded to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. (10/01/2022-9/30/26, $2,500,000; $1,838,141 subaward to University of Kansas, Center for Research, Inc.).

Cope, D. (PI), Swinburn Romine, R. (co-PI), Kobrin, J. (co-PI). Writing and Revising Interventions to Excel: Using Learning Maps and interventions to improve written communication (WRITE) for Alaska Native CTE Students. U.S. Department of Education. Grant awarded to the Arctic Slope Community Foundation, Inc. (09/30/2021-9/29/2024, $1,753,461; $1,222,242 subaward to University of Kansas, Center for Research, Inc.).

Karvonen, M. (PI), Blackorby, J. (co-PI), Swinburne Romine, R. (co-PI), Tiemann, G., (co-PI), & Torchon, M. (PD). Innovations in Science Maps, Assessments, and Reporting Technologies. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. Grant awarded to the Maryland State Department of Education. (12/2017 – 11/2021, $3,843,805; $3,823,275 subaward to University of Kansas).

Kingston, N. (PI), Swinburne Romine, R. (co-PI). Use of Learning Maps as an Organizing Structure for Formative Assessment. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. Grant awarded to the Kansas State Department of Education. (1/02015 – 9/2019, $5,816,159; $5,677,983 subaward to University of Kansas).

Memberships —

  • CCSSO Assessment, Standards, and Education for Students with Disabilities Collaborative
  • Council for Exceptional Children
  • National Council of Measurement in Education
  • American Educational Research Association