This software review discusses the capabilities of Stata to conduct item response theory modeling. The commands needed for fitting the popular one-, two-, and three-parameter logistic models are initially discussed. The procedure for testing the discrimination parameter equality in the one-parameter model is then outlined. The commands for fitting…

We have maintained the customer grade system that is being implemented to customers with excellent performance through customer segmentation for years. Currently, financial institutions that operate the customer grade system provide similar services based on the score calculation criteria, but the score calculation criteria vary from the financial…

Person-fit analyses are commonly used to detect aberrant responding in self-report data. Nonparametric person fit statistics do not require fitting a parametric test theory model and have performed well compared to other person-fit statistics. However, detection of aberrant responding has primarily focused on dominance response data, thus the…

In many performance assessments, one or two raters from the complete rater pool scores each performance, resulting in a sparse rating design, where there are limited observations of each rater relative to the complete sample of students. Although sparse rating designs can be constructed to facilitate estimation of student achievement, the…

The four-parameter logistic (4PL) Item Response Theory (IRT) model has recently been reconsidered in the literature due to the advances in the statistical modeling software and the recent developments in the estimation of the 4PL IRT model parameters. The current simulation study evaluated the performance of expectation-maximization (EM),…

Survey score interpretations are often plagued by sources of construct-irrelevant variation, such as response styles. In this study, we propose the use of an IRTree Model to account for response styles by making use of self-report items and anchoring vignettes. Specifically, we investigate how the IRTree approach with anchoring vignettes compares…

Many organizations utilize some form of automation in the test assembly process; either fully algorithmic or heuristically constructed. However, one issue with heuristic models is that when the test assembly problem changes the entire model may need to be re-conceptualized and recoded. In contrast, mixed-integer programming (MIP) is a mathematical…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) program only reports state-level subgroup results if it samples at least 62 students identifying with the subgroup. Since some subgroups constitute small proportions of many states' general student populations, these minority subgroups are seldom sufficiently sampled to meet this sample size…

This study examines and compares four person-fit statistics (PFSs) in the framework of the "D"- scoring method (DSM): (a) van der Flier's "U3" statistic; (b) "Ud" statistic, as a modification of "U3" under the DSM; (c) "Zd" statistic, as a modification of the "Z3 (l[subscript z])"…

This article critically reviews how diagnostic models have been conceptualized and how they compare to other approaches used in educational measurement. In particular, certain assumptions that have been taken for granted and used as defining characteristics of diagnostic models are reviewed and it is questioned whether these assumptions are the…

We review the GIDNA and CDM packages in R for fitting cognitive diagnosis/diagnostic classification models. We first provide a summary of their core capabilities and then use both simulated and real data to compare their functionalities in practice. We found that the most relevant routines in the two packages appear to be more similar than…

Since the start of the new millennium, international comparative large-scale studies have become one of the most well-known areas in the field of education. However, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) has already been conducting international comparative studies for about half a century. The present…

In this rejoinder, Maydeu-Olivares states that, in item response theory (IRT) measurement applications, the application of goodness-of-fit (GOF) methods informs researchers of the discrepancy between the model and the data being fitted (the room for improvement). By routinely reporting the GOF of IRT models, together with the substantive results…

Von Davier et al. (this issue) describe two analyses that aim at determining whether the constructs measured with a number of observed items are categorical or continuous in nature. The issue of types versus traits has a long history and is relevant in many areas of behavioral research, including personality research, as emphasized by von Davier…

Despite over a century of aligning test and examination scales, the theory of linking has received relatively little attention. Recently, though, frameworks for classifying linking relationships have proliferated, both in England and the United States. Limitations of U.S. frameworks, particularly the idea that linking relationships ought to be…