The use of multistage adaptive testing (MST) has gradually increased in large-scale testing programs as MST achieves a balanced compromise between linear test design and item-level adaptive testing. MST works on the premise that each examinee gives their best effort when attempting the items, and their responses truly reflect what they know or can…

Since 2000, the PISA test implemented by OECD has become the prime benchmark for international comparisons in education. The 2015 PISA edition introduced methodological changes that altered the nature of its results. PISA made no longer valid non-reached items of the final part of the test, assuming that those unanswered questions were more a…

In 2015, the "Programme for International Student Assessment" (PISA) introduced multiple changes in its study design, the most extensive being the transition from paper- to computer-based assessment. We investigated the differences between German students' text responses to eight reading items from the paper-based study in 2012 to text…

For many years, reading comprehension in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) was measured via paper-based assessment (PBA). In the 2015 cycle, computer-based assessment (CBA) was introduced, raising the question of whether central equivalence criteria required for a valid interpretation of the results are fulfilled. As an…

Gender differences in reading seem to increase throughout schooling and then decrease or even disappear with age, but the reasons for this are unclear. In this study, we explore whether differences in the way "reading literacy" is operationalised can add to our understanding of varying gender differences in international large-scale…

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an important cross-national study of 15-year-olds' academic knowledge and skills. Educationalists and public policymakers eagerly await the tri-annual results, with particular interest in whether their country has moved up or slid down the international rankings, as compared to earlier…

Many scales contain both positively and negatively worded items. Reverse recoding of negatively worded items might not be enough for them to function as positively worded items do. In this study, we commented on the drawbacks of existing approaches to wording effect in mixed-format scales and used bi-factor item response theory (IRT) models to…