Replications and robustness checks are key elements of the scientific method and a staple in many disciplines. However, leading journals in developmental psychology rarely include explicit replications of prior research conducted by different investigators, and few require authors to establish in their articles or online appendices that their key…

Rasch and classical test analysis methods were compared with respect to their similarities and differences in the identification of noninformative items and implausible person records. Using computer simulated data with known parameters, each model was evaluated in terms of its effectiveness in: (1) identifying noninformative or "bad"…

This paper describes and evaluates a new abstract form of the Purdue Elementary Problem-Solving Inventory. The new test parallels a shortened form of the original Inventory, but presents problems verbally rather than through slides. Both forms were given to advantaged and disadvantaged second- and fourth-graders. For the total sample, the slide…

Two methods of item selection were used to select sets of 40 items from a 50-item verbal analogies test, and the resulting item sets were compared for relative efficiency. The BICAL program was used to select the 40 items having the best mean square fit to the one parameter logistic (Rasch) model. The LOGIST program was used to select the 40 items…

Procedures for determining cutting scores have been proposed by Angoff and by Nedelsky. Nedelsky's approach requires that a rater examine each distractor within a test item to determine the probability of a minimally competent examinee answering correctly; whereas Angoff uses a judgment based on the whole item, rather than each of its components.…

Eight different methods are reviewed for determining whether two or more tests are equivalent measures. These methods vary in restrictiveness from the Wilks-Votaw test of compound symmetry (which requires that all means, variances, and covariances are equal), to Joreskog's theory of congeneric tests (which requires only that the tests are measures…

Three methods of item selection were used to select sets of 38 items from a 50-item verbal analogies test and the resulting item sets were compared for internal consistency, standard errors of measurement, item difficulty, biserial item-test correlations, and relative efficiency. Three groups of 1,500 cases each were used for item selection. First…

As part of the national Head Start Planned Variation Study, this study used a relatively small sample in an intensive evaluation of program implementation in one field community using the Tucson Early Education Model (TEEM). A modified Solomon four-group research design formed the organization framework. Evaluation of six TEEM classrooms and two…