In this paper we use historic score-reporting records and test-taker metadata to inform data-driven recommendations that support international students in their choice of undergraduate institutions for study in the United States. We investigate the use of Structural Topic Modeling (STM) as a context-aware, probabilistic recommendation method that…

As English continues to spread as an international lingua franca, there is a growing diversity in its use around the world. As a result, there are calls for embracing the diversity in the teaching, learning and assessment of the language. At the same time, there is a growing criticism against the widely taken language tests such as the Test of…

Testing is an issue of increasing importance. While for many teachers language learning should be communicative; in fact, they expect their students to provide evidence of their knowledge. Thus, there is a clear mismatch on the approach to language teaching and language testing. As a consequence, there is an evident need change the testing…

An analysis of the skills necessary for performance on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) tends to support the view that there are important, although subtle, secondary dimensions present in the test. This research explored the feasibility of an item response theory (IRT) based method of modeling examinee performance on these…

The use of two alternative item response theory (IRT) estimation models in the scaling and equating of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was explored; and item scaling and test equating results based on these models were compared with results based on the three-parameter (3PL) model currently being used with the TOEFL. Models were…

This study provided an exploratory investigation of item features that might contribute to a lack of invariance of item parameters for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Data came from seven forms of the TOEFL administered in 1989. Subjective and quantitative measures developed for the study provided consistent information related…