Dean Genge is an education leader and assessment specialist with more than 35 years of experience. He holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) and a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) from Memorial University.
He began his career as a middle and high school science teacher and department head in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). After 13 years in the classroom, he was seconded to the NL Department of Education, where he served as the province’s science coordinator. In this role, he was the provincial representative for large-scale assessment programs, including the first iteration of a national assessment program called the School Achievement Indicators Program (SAIP), developed under the auspices of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), as well as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement’s (IEA) Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In this role, he was involved in assessment design and development, as well as in promoting the assessments throughout the province.
Following his five-year tenure with the Department, Dean was recruited by the U.S. companies Riverside Publishing (three years) and Harcourt Assessment (two years), where he worked as a senior assessment specialist, developing Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)-aligned science assessments for many state testing programs. He also served briefly as the interim program manager of the Education Quality and Accountability Office’s (EQAO) Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT).
In 2007, Dean founded DGC Education Consultants Inc., which provides consulting services for provincial, state, and school district projects. Most of the firm’s work centers on item and question development, along with the associated training of educator development teams.
His extensive client list includes organizations such as Project Lead The Way (PLTW), CTB McGraw-Hill, the University of Georgia, the University of North Texas, the Educational Testing Service (ETS), Riverside Publishing, Pearson/GED Testing Services, EdCount, Cognia, Curriculum Associates, the Canadian Alliance of Physiotherapy Regulators (CAPR), and the Supreme Education Council of Qatar.
Recently, Dean also launched Ludoco Games Inc., a company developing a game-based platform that delivers educationally sound and engaging assessments to support student assessment and learning.
Dean believes that, compared to paper-and-pencil assessments, online assessments are far superior. He cites administrative efficiency and flexibility, student accessibility, and increased student engagement as key benefits, also recognizing that students do everything online in their everyday lives. All of Dean’s professional work is focused on the digital assessment environment. Although he recognizes that Vretta’s platform is being widely used by Canadian jurisdictions, including NL, he has not been involved with provincial assessment programs in recent years.
Reflecting on his long career, Dean takes pride in knowing that he has contributed to the design and development of large-scale student assessments that are valid and reliable and provide teachers with actionable data and feedback to support student learning. He takes great satisfaction in having developed expertise through learning from field experts and in having created talented, collaborative teams for his various global projects.
Although Dean relishes his work, he also enjoys a variety of outdoor activities, including hiking, fishing, jogging, canoeing, and relaxing at a lakeside lodge in central NL. Please feel free to reach out to Dean at: deangenge08@gmail.com or dean@dgceducation.com.
RMJ ASSESSMENT 