Our Business is Assessment
Providing strategic and technical expertise for the assessment and edtech sectors.
Get in TouchServices
Advisory and execution to support value creation in assessment and edtech
Assessment Expertise
Our team applies business, measurement, technical, and research principles to solve problems and enhance the design and delivery of large-scale assessment programs. We provide unbiased reviews of the current state of the program or process and insights and plans to support the implementation of enhancements that improve the assessment offering.
Business Guidance
Providing leadership to prioritize value creating activities, we deliver business insights to help our clients refine their strategic direction, define sectors and geographies, capture opportunities via superior proposal submissions, and monitor competitor and market changes. Through analyzing structured and unstructured data, we help organizations make decisions and implement effective processes to achieve their preferred route towards long-term sustainability.
Technical Solutions
Performance and growth in assessment technology requires a deep understanding of current and emerging technologies and the know-how to effectively incorporate these into dependable, scalable solutions. We supply data and insights to inform technical decisions centered around actionable initiatives, analyze build/buy decisions, and create the technology solution roadmap to support the adoption of an organization's innovative products and services.
Clients
Our clients include testing agencies, solution providers, and investors.
We can provide you with insights regarding market trends, government policies, customers, and the competitive environment to quantify the size, type, and urgency of sector opportunities of interest to you. We then analyze these in light of your offerings and provide effective strategies, solutions, and plans to achieve your desired results.
Bringing deep knowledge of the industry, we can serve as your confidential, external resource when you need to establish or refresh the components of your testing program. From writing RFPs to establishing evaluation criteria to advising of the risks and benefits of implementing technology improvements, we are dedicated to giving you the knowledge and tools to ensure you make decisions that will lead to success.
Offering market intelligence, deep industry expertise, and first-hand knowledge regarding the capabilities, reputation, and potential of industry players, we bring unique enhancements to your industry analyses. Our insights on the key success factors for revenue growth and market penetration in specific sectors add value to your investment decisions.
What We Do
Gibbs Advisors is a bespoke consulting firm delivering analyses and solutions across the spectrum of business and assessment-related challenges. Our team brings hands-on expertise, significant industry successes, and the ability to articulate key issues and business drivers across multiple perspectives. As assessment geeks, we are delighted to engage in industry-related challenges, solve the trickiest problems, and deliver actionable strategies.
Meet the Team
Whatever the problem, we can help.
Stella Gibbs / Principal Consultant
Stella is the founder and Principal Consultant at Gibbs Advisors, LLC, where she focuses on market and business development challenges faced by organizations as they deliver innovative assessment, data, and learning solutions in education, career and industry settings.
Before establishing Gibbs Advisors, LLC, Stella was the Executive VP at Pacific Metrics Corporation, a California-based assessment and technology company. As one of the founding executives, she was integral in securing its portfolio of business, scaling the organization and implementing its vision to provide innovative and practical measurement and technology solutions to modern assessment and learning needs.
Stella holds an MBA from Southern New Hampshire University, a Masters in Occupational Education (MOE) from the University of New Hampshire, and a B. Ed. (Hons.) from the University of Exeter in England. She brings over 25 years of deep industry experience with a number of national and international assessment and technology organizations.
Dr. Stuart Kahl / Lead Consultant
Dr. Stuart Kahl is the Lead Consultant for assessment practices, processes, and policy. The former founder and CEO of Measured Progress, Inc. he brings four decades of work in the assessment field including extensive, hands-on experience in the design, development, analysis, and reporting of innovative, large-scale assessment programs. He has served as a senior technical advisor to numerous educational organizations and worked for the Education Commission of the States, the University of Colorado, Clark University, and RMC. Dr. Kahl’s specialty areas include formative assessment, curriculum-embedded performance assessment, and teacher assessment literacy.
Stuart brings broad teaching experience from elementary school through graduate-level statistics and measurement courses and has delivered workshops and webinars in performance and classroom assessment. He presents regularly at regional and national conferences and frequently publishes research papers and commentaries on current issues and trends in education. As a researcher, he is recognized for designing innovative standard-setting procedures associated with non-multiple-choice item formats.
Dr. Kahl holds a BA in mathematics and M.Ed from the Johns Hopkins University. His doctorate from the University of Colorado in curriculum and instruction focused on research and evaluation methodology and mathematics education. The Association of Test Publishers (ATP) awarded Dr. Kahl the 2010 ATP Award for Professional Contributions and Service to Testing.
Mike Powell / Technical Consultant
Mike Powell is the Lead Technical Consultant for Gibbs Advisors LLC, bringing industry expertise to help organizations solve the thorniest of problems. His sensitivity to client business drivers, coupled with a seasoned familiarity with the operational issues that complex assessment systems and programs must solve, enable him to deliver elegant solutions that enrich the organization’s success in this space.
Mike has architected award-winning solutions in artificial intelligence (AI) scoring and computer adaptive testing (CAT). His work in AI scoring won an independently administered third-party competition determining an approach and implementation that not only led the field, but also demonstrated a solution beyond the entire market’s then capability. He has also led the design and creation of comprehensive technical architectures used as the basis for the operational technical solutions endorsed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) and National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC). Validated in foundations developed with industry leaders, Michael has repeatedly proven his skill in leading technical businesses and organizations in pursuit of the industry’s most difficult problems.
Mike holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) and a Master of Science (MS) in Computer Science from North Carolina State University. With over 15 years of software development experience and 10 years in the education industry, he has a proven ability to realize opportunities for creating lasting and differentiated solutions and intellectual property.
Get in touch
- Phone number
- +1 (831) 238-6207
- stella@gibbsadvisors.com