The use of large-scale assessments (LSAs) in education has grown in the past decade though analysis of LSAs using multilevel models (MLMs) using R has been limited. A reason for its limited use may be due to the complexity of incorporating both plausible values and weighted analyses in the multilevel analyses of LSA data. We provide additional…

The purpose of this paper is to extend and evaluate methods of "Bayesian historical borrowing" applied to longitudinal data with a focus on parameter recovery and predictive performance. Bayesian historical borrowing allows researchers to utilize information from previous data sources and to adjust the extent of borrowing based on the…

Research Question: This paper examines the overarching question of to what extent different analytic choices may influence the inference about country-specific cross-sectional and trend estimates in international large-scale assessments. We take data from the assessment of PISA mathematics proficiency from the four rounds from 2003 to 2012 as a…

In educational and psychological research, it is common to use latent factors to represent constructs and then to examine covariate effects on these latent factors. Using empirical data, this study applied three approaches to covariate effects on latent factors: the multiple-indicator multiple-cause (MIMIC) approach, multiple group confirmatory…

Background: This paper extends a recent study by Kaplan and Su ("J Educ Behav Stat" 41: 51-80, 2016) examining the problem of matrix sampling of context questionnaire scales with respect to the generation of plausible values of cognitive outcomes in large-scale assessments. Methods: Following Weirich et al. ("Nested multiple…

Background: In low-stakes educational assessments, test takers might show a performance decline (PD) on end-of-test items. PD is a concern in educational assessments, especially when groups of students are to be compared on the proficiency variable because item responses gathered in the groups could be differently affected by PD. In order to…

Background: In order to measure the proficiency of person populations in various domains, large-scale assessments often use marginal maximum likelihood IRT models where person proficiency is modelled as a random variable. Thus, the model does not provide proficiency estimates for any single person. A popular approach to derive these proficiency…