With the development of technology-enhanced learning platforms, eye-tracking biometric indicators can be recorded simultaneously with students item responses. In the current study, visual fixation, an essential eye-tracking indicator, is modeled to reflect the degree of test engagement when a test taker solves a set of test questions. Three…

The present study investigates different approaches to adding covariates and the impact in fitting mixture item response theory models. Mixture item response theory models serve as an important methodology for tackling several psychometric issues in test development, including the detection of latent differential item functioning. A Monte Carlo…

Spline (or piecewise) regression models have been used in the past to account for patterns in observed data that exhibit distinct phases. The changepoint or knot marking the shift from one phase to the other, in many applications, is an unknown parameter to be estimated. As an extension of this framework, this research considers modeling the…

A challenge associated with traditional mixture regression models (MRMs), which rest on the assumption of normally distributed errors, is determining the number of unobserved groups. Specifically, even slight deviations from normality can lead to the detection of spurious classes. The current work aims to (a) examine how sensitive the commonly…

Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) increasingly are being used in the United States for inferences about student achievement growth and educator effectiveness. Emerging research has indicated that SGPs estimated from observed test scores have large measurement errors. As such, little is known about "true" SGPs, which are defined in terms…

This study integrated Bayesian hierarchical modeling and receiver operating characteristic analysis (BROCA) to evaluate how interest strength (IS) and interest differentiation (ID) predicted low–socioeconomic status (SES) youth's interest-major congruence (IMC). Using large-scale Kuder Career Search online-assessment data, this study fit three…

This study is an evaluation of the psychometric issues associated with estimating objective level scores, often referred to as "subscores." The article begins by introducing the concepts of reliability and validity for subscores from statewide achievement tests. These issues are discussed with reference to popular scaling techniques, classical…

The economic utility of the following 5 weighting methods for evaluating consumer loan applications was determined using a sample of 443 loans: (1) unit; (2) weighted application blank; (3) chi square; (4) Bayes; and (5) regression. The unit and weighted application blank procedures were the best approaches. (SLD)