Test-based accountability as well as value-added asessments and much experimental and quasi-experimental research in education rely on achievement tests to measure student skills and knowledge. Yet, we know little regarding fundamental properties of these tests, an important example being the extent of measurement error and its implications for…

The insightful discussions by Raudenbush, Rubin, Stuart and Zanutto (RSZ) and Reckase identify important challenges for interpreting the output of VAM and for its use with test-based accountability. As these authors note, VAM are statistical models for the correlations among scores from students who share common teachers or schools during the…

Lyle V. Jones served as director of the Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory and also became the Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Graduate School of the University of North Carolina (UNC). Jones has been a Research Professor at UNC since 1992. This article presents an interview with Jones wherein he talked about his career as a researcher. Jones also…