Researchers who use measurement models for evaluation purposes often select models with stringent requirements, such as Rasch models, which are parametric. Mokken Scale Analysis (MSA) offers a theory-driven nonparametric modeling approach that may be more appropriate for some measurement applications. Researchers have discussed using MSA as a…

This study employs advanced data mining techniques to investigate the DASS-42 questionnaire, a widely used psychological assessment tool. Administered to 680 students at Necmettin Erbakan University's Ahmet Kelesoglu Faculty of Education, the DASS-42 comprises three distinct subscales--depression, anxiety and stress--each consisting of 14 items.…

Effect direction (evidence to indicate improvement, deterioration, or no change in an outcome) can be used as a standardized metric which enables the synthesis of diverse effect measures in systematic reviews. The effect direction (ED) plot was developed to support the synthesis and visualization of effect direction data. Methods for the ED plot…

More and more domains such as industry, sport, medicine, Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and education analyze user motions to observe human behavior, follow and predict its action, intention and emotion, to interact with computer systems and enhance user experience in Virtual (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). In the context of human learning of…

Background: This paper considers a new policy and statistical framework for evaluating K-12 schools and policies that aligns with diversity, equity, and inclusion values. The new approach broadens the standard approach to accountability and evaluation by combining features of evaluation and multi-level growth models with approaches used in systems…

The number of unique words in children's speech is one of most basic statistics indicating their language development. We may, however, face difficulties when trying to accurately evaluate the number of unique words in a child's growing corpus over time with a limited sample size. This study proposes a novel technique to estimate the latent number…

A grand challenge is a problem that requires broad cooperation for successful resolution from a community of scholars. Several national and international organizations have generated lists of grand challenges to unify the efforts of scholars and practitioners in a field. However, the field of assessment has yet to identify its own set of grand…

Teachers are not always aware of how the classroom design influences teaching, particularly in many family and consumer sciences (FCS) classes that require studio space, such as apparel and interior design classes. The purpose of this paper is to introduce strategies to assess studio spaces that are designed for enhancement of student learning.…

With the new school year now well under way, staff, students and families are still in desperate need of a clear strategic direction and set of tools for promoting equity and excellence in a moment of crisis. Nationally, we see school systems stepping up in new ways to provide this clarity, and seizing the moment afforded by these unusual…

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…

The issue of measurement invariance commonly arises in factor-analytic contexts, with methods for assessment including likelihood ratio tests, Lagrange multiplier tests, and Wald tests. These tests all require advance definition of the number of groups, group membership, and offending model parameters. In this paper, we study tests of measurement…

This work asks one simple question: "how reliable is the method used by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) to estimate projected rates of VET program completion?" In other words, how well do early projections align with actual completion rates some years later? Completion rates are simple to calculate with a…

Engagement is one of the most widely misused and overgeneralized constructs found in the educational, learning, instructional, and psychological sciences. The articles in this special issue represent a wide range of traditions and highlight several key conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and analytical issues related to defining and measuring…

When competence tests are administered, subjects frequently omit items. These missing responses pose a threat to correctly estimating the proficiency level. Newer model-based approaches aim to take nonignorable missing data processes into account by incorporating a latent missing propensity into the measurement model. Two assumptions are typically…

The primary objective of this special issue is to synthesize results from recent reading fluency research endeavors, and to link these findings to practical uses of reading curriculum-based measurement (R-CBM) tools. Taken together, the manuscripts presented in this issue discuss measurement work related to new metrics of indexing student reading…