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…

The highly adaptive testing (HAT) design is introduced as an alternative test design for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The principle of HAT is to be as adaptive as possible when selecting items while accounting for PISA's nonstatistical constraints and addressing issues concerning PISA such as item position effects.…

Multistage adaptive testing (MST) has been recently adopted for international large-scale assessments such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). MST offers improved measurement efficiency over traditional nonadaptive tests and improved practical convenience over single-item-adaptive computerized adaptive testing (CAT). As a…

Understanding the intraindividual relation between an individual's speed and ability in testing scenarios is essential to assure a fair assessment. Different approaches exist for estimating this relationship, that either rely on specific study designs or on specific assumptions. This paper aims to add to the toolbox of approaches for estimating…

PISA aims to serve as a "global yardstick" for educational success, as measured by student performance. For comparisons to be meaningful across countries or over time, PISA samples must be representative of the population of 15-year-old students in each country. Exclusions and non-response can undermine this representativeness and…

In this research, multistage adaptive tests (MST) were compared according to sample size, panel pattern and module length for top-down and bottom-up test assembly methods. Within the scope of the research, data from PISA 2015 were used and simulation studies were conducted according to the parameters estimated from these data. Analysis results for…

The PISA assessment 2022 of creative thinking was a moonshot effort that introduced significant advancements over existing creativity tests, including a broad range of domains (written, visual, social, and scientific), implementation in many languages, and sophisticated scoring methods. PISA 2022 demonstrated the general feasibility of assessing…

Common indicator-based approaches to identifying careless and insufficient effort responding (C/IER) in survey data scan response vectors or timing data for aberrances, such as patterns signaling straight lining, multivariate outliers, or signals that respondents rushed through the administered items. Each of these approaches is susceptible to…

Dr. Tracey Burns is a Senior Analyst in the OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. She heads a portfolio of projects including Innovative Teaching for Effective Learning, 21st Century Children and Trends Shaping Education. Until recently she was also responsible for the OECD work on Governing Complex Education systems. Previous to…

International large-scale assessments (ILSAs) are one of the most important tools policymakers and other educational stakeholders have to inform evidence based decision making for educational reform. Despite this, and the widespread use of ILSA data, results are sometimes misunderstood or misinterpreted. Here, we offer a brief guide to ILSAs and…

International large-scale assessments provide cross-national data on students' cognitive and non-cognitive characteristics. A critical methodological issue that often arises in comparing data from cross-national studies is ensuring measurement invariance, indicating that the construct under investigation is the same across the compared groups.…

Many international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) have switched to multistage adaptive testing (MST) designs to improve measurement efficiency in measuring the skills of the heterogeneous populations around the world. In this context, previous literature has reported the acceptable level of model parameter recovery under the MST designs when the…

Digital administration of assessments allows for the collection of process data indices, such as response time, which can serve as indicators of rapid-guessing and examinee test-taking effort. Setting a time threshold is essential to distinguish effortful from effortless behavior using item response times. Threshold identification methods may…

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…

The increasing use of low-stakes international assessments highlights the importance of test-taking efforts. Previous studies have used self-reported and response time-based measures to examine this effort. Although differences between these measures have been suggested, their association with performances and potential gender gaps remains…