Module Overview: In this digital ITEMS module, Dr. Jodi M. Casabianca provides a primer on the "hierarchical rater model" (HRM) framework and the recent expansions to the model for analyzing raters and ratings of constructed responses. In the first part of the module, she establishes an understanding of the nature of constructed…

Vertical scales are frequently developed using common item nonequivalent group linking. In this design, one can use upper-grade, lower-grade, or mixed-grade common items to estimate the linking constants that underlie the absolute measurement of growth. Using the Rasch model and a dataset from Curriculum Associates' i-Ready Diagnostic in math in…

Educators and researchers strive to build policies and practices on data and evidence, especially on academic achievement scores. When assessment scores are inaccurate for specific student populations or when scores are inappropriately used, even data-driven decisions will be misinformed. To maximize the impact of the research-practice-policy…

A common belief is that the Bookmark method is a cognitively simpler standard-setting method than the modified Angoff method. However, a limited amount of research has investigated panelist's ability to perform well the Bookmark method, and whether some of the challenges panelists face with the Angoff method may also be present in the Bookmark…

Studies investigating invariance have often been limited to measurement or prediction invariance. Selection invariance, wherein the use of test scores for classification results in equivalent classification accuracy between groups, has received comparatively little attention in the psychometric literature. Previous research suggests that some form…

In this digital ITEMS module, Dr. Sue Lottridge, Amy Burkhardt, and Dr. Michelle Boyer provide an overview of automated scoring. Automated scoring is the use of computer algorithms to score unconstrained open-ended test items by mimicking human scoring. The use of automated scoring is increasing in educational assessment programs because it allows…

Simulation studies are extremely common in the item response theory (IRT) research literature. This article presents a didactic discussion of "truth" and "error" in IRT-based simulation studies. We ultimately recommend that future research focus less on the simple recovery of parameters from a convenient generating IRT model,…

In this study, we examined the impact of covariate measurement error (ME) on the estimation of quantile regression and student growth percentiles (SGPs), and find that SGPs tend to be overestimated among students with higher prior achievement and underestimated among those with lower prior achievement, a problem we describe as ME endogeneity in…

Student growth percentiles (SGPs) express students' current observed scores as percentile ranks in the distribution of scores among students with the same prior-year scores. A common concern about SGPs at the student level, and mean or median SGPs (MGPs) at the aggregate level, is potential bias due to test measurement error (ME). Shang,…

The educational literature, the popular press, and educated laypeople have all echoed a conclusion from the book "Academically Adrift" by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa (which has now become received wisdom), namely, that 45% of college students showed no significant gains in critical thinking skills. Similar results were reported by…

Mean or median student growth percentiles (MGPs) are a popular measure of educator performance, but they lack rigorous evaluation. This study investigates the error in MGP due to test score measurement error (ME). Using analytic derivations, we find that errors in the commonly used MGP are correlated with average prior latent achievement: Teachers…

We examine the factor structure of scores from the CLASS-S protocol obtained from observations of middle school classroom teaching. Factor analysis has been used to support both interpretations of scores from classroom observation protocols, like CLASS-S, and the theories about teaching that underlie them. However, classroom observations contain…

This module describes and extends X-to-Y regression measures that have been proposed for use in the assessment of X-to-Y scaling and equating results. Measures are developed that are similar to those based on prediction error in regression analyses but that are directly suited to interests in scaling and equating evaluations. The regression and…

Formative assessment is a classroom practice that has received much attention in recent years for its established potential at increasing student learning. A frequent analytic approach for determining the quality of formative assessment practices is to develop a coding scheme and determine frequencies with which the codes are observed; however,…

Contemporary educational accountability systems, including state-level systems prescribed under No Child Left Behind as well as those envisioned under the "Race to the Top" comprehensive assessment competition, rely on school-level summaries of student test scores. The precision of these score summaries is almost always evaluated using models that…