Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) is an approach for analysis of latent variables using exploratory factor analysis to evaluate the measurement model. This study compared ESEM with two dominant approaches for multiple regression with latent variables, structural equation modeling (SEM) and manifest regression analysis (MRA). Main…

Percentage of body fat, age, weight, height, and 14 circumference measurements (e.g., waist) are given for 184 women aged 18-25. Body fat, one measure of health, was accurately determined by an underwater weighing technique which requires special equipment and training of the individuals conducting the process. Modeling body fat percentage using…

Purpose: Family support programs commonly use self-sufficiency matrices (SSMs) to measure family outcomes, however, validation research on SSMs is sparse. This study examined the reliability of the Colorado Family Support Assessment 2.0 (CFSA 2.0) to measure family self-reliance across 14 domains (e.g., employment). Methods: Ten written case…

Screening is necessary to detect risk and prevent reading failure. Yet the amount of screening that commonly occurs in U.S. schools may undermine its value, creating more error in decision making and lost instructional opportunity. This 2-year longitudinal study examined the decision accuracy associated with collecting concurrent reading screening…

An adequate level of linguistic complexity in learning materials is believed to be of crucial importance for learning. The implication for school textbooks is that reading complexity should differ systematically between grade levels and between higher and lower tracks in line with what can be called the systematic complexification assumption.…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a treadmill walk-jog-run exercise test previously validated in adults and physical activity questionnaire data to estimate maximum oxygen consumption (VO[subscript 2]max) in boys (n = 62) and girls (n = 66) aged 12 to 17 years old. Methods: Data were collected from Physical Activity…

Despite their widespread use, there is little research to support the accuracy of curriculum-based measurement of reading progress monitoring decision rules. The purpose of this study was to investigate the accuracy of a common data point decision rule. This study used a three-point rule with a goal line of 1.50 words read correctly per minute…

Purpose: The relationship between cognitive abilities and aphasia rehabilitation outcomes is complex and remains poorly understood. This study investigated the influence of language and cognitive abilities on anomia therapy outcomes in adults with aphasia. Method: Thirty-four adults with chronic aphasia participated in Aphasia Language Impairment…

In a sequential OSCE which has been suggested to reduce testing costs, candidates take a short screening test and who fail the test, are asked to take the full OSCE. In order to introduce an effective and accurate sequential design, we developed a model for designing and evaluating screening OSCEs. Based on two datasets from a 10-station…

Students with ASC are at heightened risk for bullying and their understanding of bullying is known to protect them from involvement in it (Humphrey and Hebron 2015). However, only a handful of studies have examined how students with ASC understand traditional bullying and none of them focused on cyberbullying. To fill this gap, we investigated how…

This study analyzes lexical proficiency in oral and written texts produced by second language (L2) learners of English. The purpose of the study is to examine relationships between analytic scores of depth of lexical knowledge, breadth of lexical knowledge, and access to core lexical items and holistic scores of lexical proficiency. A corpus of…

Interim tests are a central component of district-wide assessment systems, yet their technical quality to guide decisions (e.g., instructional) has been repeatedly questioned. In response, the study purpose was to investigate the validity of a series of English Language Arts (ELA) interim assessments in terms of dimensionality and prediction of…

The goal was to assess the role of invented spelling to subsequent reading and spelling as proposed by the Nested Skills Model of Early Literacy Acquisition. 107 English-speaking children were tested at the beginning of kindergarten and grade 1, and at the end of grade 1. The findings provided support for the proposed model. First, the role played…

Separate mixed model analyses of variance were conducted to examine the effect of textual distance on the accuracy and speed of text consistency judgments among adequate and struggling comprehenders across grades 6-12 (n = 1,203). Multiple regressions examined whether accuracy in text consistency judgments uniquely accounted for variance in…

An enduring issue in higher education is student retention to successful graduation. National statistics indicate that most higher education institutions have four-year degree completion rates around 50%, or just half of their student populations. While there are prediction models which illuminate what factors assist with college student success,…