Test, measurement, and evaluation are concepts used in education to explain how the progress of learning and the final learning outcomes of students are assessed. However, the terms are often misused in the field of education, especially in Ghana. The objective of the study was to thoroughly explain the concepts to assist educationists and…

Tests of statistical significance often play a decisive role in establishing the empirical warrant of evidence-based research in education. The results from pattern-based assessment items, as introduced in this paper, are categorical and multimodal and do not immediately support the use of measures of central tendency as typically related to…

Since the mid 1970s, a series of international declarations that recognize the critical link between environmental sustainability and higher education have been endorsed and signed by universities around the world. While academic initiatives in sustainability are blossoming, higher education lacks a comprehensive evaluation framework that is…

This paper gives an overview of research on modelling science competence in German science education. Since the first national German educational standards for physics, chemistry and biology education were released in 2004 research projects dealing with competences have become prominent strands. Most of this research is about the structure of…

This dissertation comprises three papers that propose, discuss, and illustrate models to make improved inferences about research questions regarding student achievement in education. Addressing the types of questions common in educational research today requires three different "extensions" to traditional educational assessment: (1)…

In the attempt to identify or prevent unfair tests, both quantitative analyses and logical evaluation are often used. For the most part, fairness evaluation is a pragmatic attempt at determining whether procedural or substantive due process has been accorded to either a group of test takers or an individual. In both the individual and comparative…

When comparing data derived from tests or questionnaires in cross-national studies, researchers commonly assume measurement invariance in their underlying scaling models. However, different cultural contexts, languages, and curricula can have powerful effects on how students respond in different countries. This article illustrates how the…

In educational measurement, the construction of parallel test forms is often a combinatorial optimization problem that involves the time-consuming selection of items to construct tests having approximately the same test information functions (TIFs) and constraints. This article proposes a novel method, genetic algorithm (GA), to construct parallel…

Several issues relating to agreement estimates for different types of data from performance evaluations are considered. New indices of agreement are presented for ordinal level items and for summative scores produced by nominal or ordinal level items. Two sets of empirical data illustrate the performance of the two formulas derived to estimate…

The paper documents experiments designed to compare essay and multiple-choice tests as means of testing science learning. Results indicate it is easier to score high on multiple-choice tests; some students substitute quantity on essay tests; and essay tests reveal weaknesses hidden by multiple-choice tests. (RE)

A new system of order analysis, developed by Takeya and called Item Relations Structure Analysis (IRSA), was described and used for examining the structural relations among a set of 24 items on the addition and subtraction of fractions. A diagraph showing 16 chains of items that had discernibly common features was generated by this method, and…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires the reporting of participation in assessments overall and by subgroup, including students with disabilities. As states and school districts strive to meet the goals for adequate yearly progress required by NCLB, the use of individual accommodations continues to be scrutinized for effectiveness,…

This paper examines how various equating methods are affected by: (1) sampling error; (2) sample characteristics; and (3) characteristics of anchor test items. It reviews empirical studies that investigated the invariance of equating transformations, and it discusses empirical and simulation studies that focus on how the properties of anchor tests…

The validity of logistic test models and computer simulation methods for generating sampling distributions of item bias statistics was evaluated under the hypothesis of no item bias. Test data from 937 ninth-grade students were used to develop 7 steps for applying computer-simulated baseline statistics in test development. (SLD)

The premise that students are an untapped educational resource and that they provide teachers with a source of individualized instruction provided the impetus for this study. Researchers had two objectives: one, to determine the possibility of developing a typology of peer helping behavior within the classroom; and, two, if possible, to use this…