Caveon, the high-stakes testing industry’s leading exam security provider, announces the retirement of Dennis Maynes as Chief Scientist, effective August 31, 2021. Dr. Sarah Toton, psychometrician and 5-year Caveon veteran, will serve as Chief Scientist upon Maynes’ retirement.
Maynes, a Caveon co-founder, leveraged his experience in both mathematics and computer science to establish Caveon’s industry-leading Data Forensics division. Since Caveon’s inception, this cutting-edge service has supported many of the world’s largest and most impactful test programs by detecting, highlighting, and measuring the impacts of test fraud.
In his 18 years as Chief Scientist, Maynes performed or supervised analyses of more than 40 million test instances for over 100 clients in the certification, education, and military/government industries. He has contributed significant advancements to the practice of test security, including the computation of similarity statistics, the creation of innovative algorithms to analyze clusters and groups of tests, the analysis of unusual response time data, and the design of items and tests to increase test security and detect various types of test fraud.
“It has been an honor to serve and impact our clients,” Maynes said. “I am so grateful to them for placing their trust in Caveon and in me all these years.”
Succeeding Maynes in the role of Caveon Chief Scientist is Dr. Sarah Toton. A Psychometrician and Senior Data Forensics Scientist, Toton has worked for Caveon for over five years and has established herself as a prominent measurement and test security expert. Toton and Maynes have worked closely for the last five years conducting research on the detection of examinee pre-knowledge using item responses and response time statistics. Prior to joining Caveon, Toton received her Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology from the University of Virginia.
A winner of the Benjamin D. Wright Innovations in Measurement Award, Toton brings a strong background in Item Response Theory to her work and a creative approach to the challenges of the testing industry. Toton regularly presents her work at the Conference on Test Security and is a member of the Association of Test Publishers and the National Council of Measurement in Education.
“I am very excited for the opportunity to lead such an incredible team and am up for the challenge,” Toton said. “I look forward to not only maintaining the solid foundation that Dennis has built, but also pursuing exciting new directions to expand Caveon’s capabilities.”
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