The purpose of this study was to investigate a new way of evaluating interrater reliability that can allow one to determine if two raters differ with respect to their rating on a polytomous rating scale or constructed response item. Specifically, differential item functioning (DIF) analyses were used to assess interrater reliability and compared…

Spearman's correction for attenuation (measurement error) corrects a correlation coefficient for measurement errors in either-or-both of two variables, and follows from the assumptions of classical test theory. Spearman's equation removes all measurement error from a correlation coefficient which translates into "increasing the reliability of…

Since Cronbach's (1951) elaboration of a from its introduction by Guttman (1945), this coefficient has become ubiquitous in characterizing assessment instruments in education, psychology, and other social sciences. Also ubiquitous are caveats on the calculation and interpretation of this coefficient. This article summarizes a recent contribution…

K-12 English language proficiency tests that assess multiple content domains (e.g., listening, speaking, reading, writing) often have subsections based on these content domains; scores assigned to these subsections are commonly known as subscores. Testing programs face increasing customer demands for the reporting of subscores in addition to the…

This study evaluates the psychometric properties of three different forms of the Writing Apprehension Test (WAT; Daly & Miller, 1975) through Rasch analysis. For this purpose, the fit statistics and correlation coefficients, and the reliability, separation ratio, and chi-square values for the facets of item and person calculated for the…

Student learning in instructional physics labs represents a growing area of research that includes investigations of students' beliefs and expectations about the nature of experimental physics. To directly probe students' epistemologies about experimental physics and support broader lab transformation efforts at the University of Colorado Boulder…

The purpose of the researcher in this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between principals' leadership practices, school culture, and student achievement as perceived by elementary school teachers. The researcher established the 5 research questions to: (a) determine the differences between high- and low-achievement schools on the…

In adolescence research, the treatment of measurement reliability is often fragmented, and it is not always clear how different reliability coefficients are related. We show that generalizability theory (G-theory) is a comprehensive framework of measurement reliability, encompassing all other reliability methods (e.g., Pearson "r,"…

Research on the graphical facilitation of probabilistic reasoning has been characterised by the effort expended to identify valid assessment tools. The authors developed an assessment instrument to compare reasoning performances when problems were presented in verbal-numerical and graphical-pictorial formats. A sample of undergraduate psychology…

Recent policy has charged schools and districts with maintaining highly qualified teachers and differentiating among teachers in terms of their effectiveness (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). This emphasis has driven the development and implementation of teacher quality measures which are increasingly being used to evaluate teachers with…

Background: This article reports a study into the double marking of Liberal Studies in Hong Kong. This is now a compulsory subject in Hong Kong's Years 10-12 curriculum which, when first examined in the new Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education in 2012, will increase its candidature from its current 3,300 to 80,000. Aims: To examine the…

The purpose of this study was to: 1) analyze the relationship of preprogram and nursing program variables on National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) success and failure, and 2) develop a model to predict success and failure on the NCLEX-RN. The convenience sample was comprised of 245 spring, summer, and fall midterm…

Because test scores are ordinal not cordinal attributes, the average test score often is a misleading way to summarize the scores of a group of individuals. Similarly, correlation coefficients may be misleading summary measures of association between test scores. Proper, readily interpretable, summary statistics are developed from a theory of…

The present paper reviews the techniques commonly used to correct an observed correlation coefficient for the simultaneous influence of attenuation and range restriction effects. It is noted that the procedure which is currently in use may be somewhat biased because it treats range restriction and attenuation as independent restrictive influences.…

Using the concepts of conditional probability, conditional expectation, and conditional independence, the main results of the classical test theory model can be derived in a very few steps with minimal assumptions. The present effort explores the possibility that present classical test theories can be further condensed. (Author/RC)