Sarah Hughes is the Head of Test Design and Validation, in the Assessment Research and Validity team for Pearson Tests of English. She conducts research into the validity, reliability, and potential for innovation in Pearson’s English language tests. In her years with Pearson, she has worked across all aspects of designing, producing, and researching high-stakes international assessments. She has published and presented research findings related to cognitive processes in human scoring, comparative judgement, standards alignment, validity and evaluation of assessment functioning. Sarah is an accredited member of the Association for Educational Assessment – Europe (AEA-E). She received her BA in English from the University of Michigan and her MA in English from Brown University. Alongside her work with Pearson, she is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, researching the use of explainable artificial intelligence techniques and validity in automated assessment scoring systems