Hi! I am a Principal Assessment Scientist at Duolingo, leading validity and efficacy research for The Duolingo English Test


My career has been motivated by social impact, working on AI-driven, education technology to enhance equity and access for learners and test takers. My research lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence and natural language processing, educational measurement, equity in education, learning analytics, and linguistics. With a team of talented colleagues, I pioneered the first automated writing evaluation system used in large-scale, high-stakes assessment. My recent work focuses on responsible AI, and validity and efficacy research for digital language assessment.  I am a co-founder of SIG EDU, an ACL Special Interest Group on Building Educational Applications. I received my PhD in Linguistics from The Graduate Center, the City University of New York (CUNY).

On a personal note, I currently volunteer to coordinate & distribute food at a grab-n-go food pantry in Trenton, NJ.  Previously, I have been a mentor in the 101: Fund, a needs-based college scholarship fund for Princeton High School students, and have volunteered for the Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service to help resettle refugees.

Feel free to reach out: jill.burstein [at] gmail.com or jill [at] duolingo.com

Connect with me!: LinkedIn