Learning processes often occur at a situational level. Changes in learning context have implications on how students are motivated or are able to cognitively process information. To study such situational phenomena, Experience Sampling Method (ESM) can help assess psychological variables in the moment and in context. However, data collected via…

Traditionally, cluster randomized controlled trials are analyzed with the average intervention effect of interest. However, in populations that contain higher degrees of heterogeneity or variation may differ across different values of a covariate, which may not be optimal. Within education and social science contexts, exploring the variation in…

Applied educational researchers may be interested in exploring random slope effects in multilevel models, such as when examining individual growth trajectories with longitudinal data. Random slopes are effects for which the slope of an individual-level coefficient varies depending on group membership, however these effects can be difficult to…

Researchers face many choices when conducting large-scale multisite individually randomized control trials. One of the most common quantities of interest in multisite RCTs is the overall average effect. Even this quantity is non-trivial to define and estimate. The researcher can target the average effect across individuals or sites. Furthermore,…

Multilevel Rasch models are increasingly used to estimate the relationships between test scores and student and school factors. Response data were generated to follow one-, two-, and three-parameter logistic (1PL, 2PL, 3PL) models, but the Rasch model was used to estimate the latent regression parameters. When the response functions followed 2PL…

When contextual features of test-taking environments differentially affect item responding for different test takers and these features vary across test administrations, they may cause differential item functioning (DIF) that varies across test administrations. Because many common DIF detection methods ignore potential DIF variance, this article…

Visual diagnosis of radiographs, histology and electrocardiograms lends itself to deliberate practice, facilitated by large online banks of cases. Which cases to supply to which learners in which order is still to be worked out, with there being considerable potential for adapting the learning. Advances in statistical modeling, based on an…

This paper proposes a teacher effect change model in the form of a latent variable regression 5-level hierarchical model (LVR-HM5). Using multiple years of student achievement data, the LVR-HM5 attempts to simultaneously estimate teacher effect as well as teacher initial status and the gap parameter to model the change of such latent parameters…

Civic engagement in the United States has increased since the election of President Trump. This increase is evident online as people are using Twitter to assert their digital citizenship by voicing their opinions regarding President Donald J. Trump and demonstrating solidarity with various civic movements. President Trump's election has caused…

Research has shown that mathematical proficiency gaps are related to students' and schools' indicators of poverty, with fewer studies on neighborhood effects on achievement gaps. Although this literature has accounted for students' nesting within schools, so far, methodological constraints have not allowed researchers to formally account for…

The use of differences scores to assess agreement/disagreement has a long and contentious history. Laird (2020) notes, however, that developmentalists have been particularly resistant to discontinue the use of difference scores. One area of developmental science where difference scores are still in regular use is that of parental differential…

Studies analyzing clustered data sets using both multilevel models (MLMs) and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression have generally concluded that resulting point estimates, but not the standard errors, are comparable with each other. However, the accuracy of the estimates of OLS models is important to consider, as several alternative techniques…

This study examined the effect of similar vs. dissimilar proficiency distributions on uniform DIF detection on a statewide eighth grade mathematics assessment. Results from the similar- and dissimilar-ability reference groups with an SWD focal group were compared for four models: logistic regression, hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM),…

An important concern when planning research studies is to obtain maximum precision of an estimate of a treatment effect given a budget constraint. When research designs have a "multilevel" or "hierarchical" structure changes in sample size at different levels of the design will impact precision differently. Furthermore, there…

This article provides a longitudinal examination of how changes in more than 200 middle-grades mathematics teachers' instructional practices related to their (a) mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) and (b) instructional vision. Results of this multilevel regression analysis suggest that MKT and instructional vision are related to instruction…