Russell Swinburne Romine

Russell Swinburne Romine
  • ATLAS Associate Director

Contact Info

Biography —

Russell Swinburne Romine, PhD, has more than 10 years of experience in the development of large-scale assessments using principles of Evidence-Centered Design and Universal Design for Learning. He leads more than 70 staff members in the design and delivery of operational assessments in ELA, mathematics, and science.

Swinburne Romine is the Associate 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. In addition to his role as co-principal investigator on the Pathways for Instructionally Embedded Assessment (PIE) project, Swinburne Romine was the principal investigator of the Shared Writing Instructional Model (SWIM) project for students with intellectual disabilities and co-investigator on two Enhanced Assessment Grants, Innovations in Science Maps, Assessment, and Reporting Technologies and the Use of Learning Maps as an Organizing Structure for Formative Assessment Project.

He leads collaborative work with the National Center on Deafblindness to develop map-based instructional resources for students with significant cognitive disabilities and dual sensory loss. He also serves as co-principal investigator on the Writing & Revising Interventions to Excel (WRITE) project, focused on instruction and assessment in writing for Alaska native students in high school career and technical education courses. He is a member of the American Educational Research Association, the National Council on Measurement in Education, and the Council for Exceptional Children. He has presented research nationally and contributed to technical reports for the Dynamic Learning Maps® Alternate Assessment Consortium and multiple funded projects.

Education —

Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota

Selected Publications —

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 —

Swinburne Romine, R., Thatcher, E., Gilmore, D., & Beeman, L. (2023) Being a Writer – Practices from the Shared Writing Instructional Model [Conference Poster]. Council for Exceptional Children, Louisville, KY, 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.

Shipman, S., Tiemann, G.C., Dolan, R, & Swinburne Romine, R. (2019, June). The I-SMART project: Creating multidimensional science assessments using principles of Universal Design for Learning and fine-grained learning maps. Paper presented at the National Conference on Student Assessment, Oralando, FL.

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.

Andersen, L., Swinburne Romine, R, & Bechard, S. (2019, April). Cognitive models for accessible science assessments. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Karvonen, M., Andersen, L., Swinburne Romine, R., & Tiemann, G. (2019, April). Blending evidence-centered design and universal design for learning in next-generation science assessment. Paper presented at National Council on Measurement in Education, Toronto, ON.

Karvonen, M., Clark, A. K., Swinburne Romine, R., & Kingston, N. M. (2019, April). Development and evaluation of diagnostic score reports: Process and recommendations. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, 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. & Tiemann, G. C. (2019, April). Assessment design: Integrating Evidence-Centered Design and Universal Design for Learning. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Andersen, L., Bechard, S., Swinburne Romine, R., Ruhter, L., & Shipman, M. (2019, March). Using learning map models to design accessible science assessments. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Baltimore, MD.

Blackorby, J., Swinburne Romine, R., Karvonen, M., Dolan, B., & Wojcik, C. (2019, March). I-SMART! Learn about UDL Applied in Assessments. Session at the UDL-IRN summit, Orlando, Florida.

Andersen, L., & Swinburne Romine, R. (2018, March). The development of universally designed, fine-grained science learning map models. Paper presented at the annual conference of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Atlanta, GA.

Clark, A., Karvonen, M., Swinburne Romine, R. & Nash, B. (2017, April). Exploring teacher choice when using an instructionally embedded alternate assessment system. Presented at the National Council on Measurement in Education, San Antonio, TX.

Karvonen, M., Swinburne Romine, R., Clark, A., Brussow, J., & Kingston, N. (2017, April). Promoting accurate score report interpretation. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, San Antonio, Texas.

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.

Thatcher, E. & Swinburne Romine, R. (2016, June) Re-Examining Fairness: Findings from Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment Design and Implementation. Presentation at the National Conference on Student Assessment, Philadelphia, PA.

Karvonen, M., Swinburne Romine, R., & Clark, A. K. (2016, April). Validity evidence to support alternate assessment score uses: Fidelity and response processes. Presentation at the 2016 annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, Washington, DC.

Swinburne Romine, R., Karvonen, M., & Shipman, M. (2016, April). Validity Evidence for a Writing Assessment for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities. Electronic board session presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, Washington, D.C.

Swinburne Romine, R., & Shipman, M. (2016, April). Instructionally Relevant Large Scale Writing Assessments for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities. Poster session presented at the annual conference of the Council for Exceptional Children, St. Louis, MO.

Swinburne Romine, R., Andersen, L., Nash, B., Shipman, M., Ruhter, R., & Lawrence, A. (2015, October). Test Development in a Learning Maps Environment. Conference Workshop given at the annual meeting of the International Association for Educational Assessment, Lawrence, KS. 

Swinburne Romine, R., & Schuster, J. (2014, April). Moving beyond learning progressions to dynamic learning maps: A validation study of a Dynamic Learning Map English Language Arts section. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Philadelphia, PA.

Grants & Other Funded Activity —

Funded Projects

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