Bio

Dr. Matias Placencio-Castro is a Chilean educator, researcher, and data scientist with over a decade of experience in applied statistics, educational research, global health, and social policy. He currently serves as a Senior Research Specialist, Development and Reporting, at the IEA's TIMMS and PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College where he supports the activities of assessment development and context questionnaires staff, contributes to the development of research publications, and participates in managing project schedules for TIMSS and PIRLS projects and publications.

Dr. Placencio-Castro earned his Ph.D. in Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment from the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. He holds a Master’s degree in Sociology, a Bachelor’s degree in History, and a High School Teaching Degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. His work is grounded in a commitment to scientific rigor, reproducibility, and the use of data to inform policy and practice in low-resource and post-conflict settings, with a focus on improving the well-being of vulnerable populations.

In Chile, he has worked in governmental organizations, including the National Institute of Statistics and the Quality of Education Agency. In the U.S., he has worked for the Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Boston College Research Services, and the Boston Public Schools District. He has also served as a Consultant for the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Before joining the TIMSS and PIRLS Center, he served as Data Analysis Manager and Senior Research Data Analyst at the Boston College Research Program on Children and Adversity, where he was responsible for the integrity and security of datasets, along with providing support on research design, sampling, instrument development, data collection, survey programming, data management, and statistical modeling. His interests include early childhood development, educational inequality and achievement gaps, as well as quantitative research methods, with an emphasis on psychometrics and instrument development, experimental designs, and multilevel and structural equation modeling.

His academic background showcases a combination of social sciences and education theory, global public health, and quantitative methodologies, with intensive training in experimental designs, program evaluation, and advanced statistical modeling applied to clinical effectiveness trials and hybrid research designs.