This paper will deal, firstly, with the South African context, that cries out for attention to responsible language assessment. The renewed interest in language testing in South Africa is well illustrated in assessments of language ability for educational purposes generally, and more specifically in the assessment of academic literacy. Secondly,…

The internal validity of observational study is often subject to debate. In this study, we define the counterfactuals as the unobserved sample and intend to quantify its relationship with the null hypothesis statistical testing (NHST). We propose the probability of a robust inference for internal validity, that is, the PIV, as a robustness index…

Publication bias threatens meta-analysis validity. It is often assessed via the funnel plot; an asymmetric plot implies small-study effects, and publication bias is one cause of the asymmetry. Egger's regression test is a widely used tool to quantitatively assess such asymmetry. It examines the association between the observed effect sizes and…

This note discusses the merits of coefficient alpha and their conditions in light of recent critical publications that miss out on significant research findings over the past several decades. That earlier research has demonstrated the empirical relevance and utility of coefficient alpha under certain empirical circumstances. The article highlights…

A procedure for evaluation of validity related coefficients and their differences is discussed, which is applicable when one or more frequently used assumptions in empirical educational, behavioral and social research are violated. The method is developed within the framework of the latent variable modeling methodology and accomplishes point and…

This article refers to the new European discussion on international knowledge transfer in religious education. Readers are introduced to the background of the recent manifesto 'International Knowledge Transfer in Religious Education: A Manifesto for Discussion' which was the outcome of a first international consultation of researchers in the field…

This article describes and reviews the "Test of Early Communication and Emerging Language" (TECEL; Huer & Miller, 2011). The test was constructed to assess infants' and toddlers' earliest communication and language abilities. The TECEL is a revision of the Nonspeech Test for Receptive/ Expressive Language (NST; Huer, 1983, 1988). The…

In the US K-12 public school settings, each state's annual English language proficiency (ELP) assessment, as part of an educational accountability system, has tremendous impact on English learner (EL) students' academic paths and success. It is thus critical to establish a robust validation framework and empirical evidence to ensure that states'…

The Scylla and Charybdis in this discussion of teacher evaluation are standardized achievement test data on the one hand, and classroom observational systems on the other. These are the two most common methods used to judge teachers' competency. Both have serious flaws: the former primarily with validity, the latter primarily with reliability. At…

As a personality trait, second language (L2) grit--a combination of perseverance and passion for L2 learning--has recently been proposed as a meaningful predictor of learners' motivational behavior and L2 achievement. The results of a growing body of empirical studies carried out in various L2 contexts have substantiated the power of L2 grit in…

Research conducted over the past 15-20 years has revealed significant insights into the nature and role of learner selves in language learning settings, particularly the importance of considering the interaction between situated contextual factors and the ways learners perceive, imagine, and construe their possible selves. To further advance this…

The Additive Factor Model (AFM) is a cognitive diagnostic model that can be used to predict student performance on items in a context that allows for student learning. Within AFM, "skills" have a learning rate, and student acquisition of a skill depends only on the number of opportunities a student has had to exercise that skill and the…

International large-scale assessments (ILSAs) have become an important part of the Swedish evaluation system. It is therefore of crucial importance to validate national measures of Swedish students' achievement with their ILSA test scores. Here, we offer results from such a validation study based on Swedish students' test scores in IEA's Trends in…

This article presents a description of the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales, Third Edition (Vineland-3; Sparrow, Cicchetti, & Saulnier, 2016), published by Pearson, which is a newly updated individually administered measure of adaptive functioning for individuals from birth to age 90. Primarily used in clinical, psychoeducational, and…

As medical schools have changed their curricula to address foundational and clinical sciences in a more integrated fashion, teaching methods such as concept mapping have been incorporated in small group learning settings. Methods that can assess students' ability to apply such integrated knowledge are not as developed, however. The purpose of this…