A decision consistency (DC) index is an estimate of the consistency of a classification decision on an exam. More specifically, DC estimates the percentage of examinees that would have the same classification decision on an exam if they were to retake the same or a parallel form of the exam again without memory of taking the exam the first time.…

This systematic review investigated the topics studied and reporting practices of published meta-analyses in educational measurement. Our findings indicated that meta-analysis is not a highly utilized methodological tool in educational measurement; on average, less than one meta-analysis has been published per year over the past 30 years (28…

There is an ongoing debate among instructional personnel, parents, legislators, and the community at large about the nature and purpose of testing in the educational system. State and district-based testing programs have been criticized as "over-testing" policies. The result of the criticism culminates in a reduction of assessment…

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of adaptive learner models that seek to predict student correctness. Improvements on earlier models have shown that separate predictors for prior successes, failures, and recent performance further improve fit while remaining interpretable. However, students who engage in "gaming" or other…

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of adaptive learner models that seek to predict student correctness. Improvements on earlier models have shown that separate predictors for prior successes, failures, and recent performance further improve fit while remaining interpretable. However, students who engage in "gaming" or other…

Accurate placement within levels of an ESL program is crucial for optimal teaching and learning. Commercially available tests are commonly used for placement, but their effectiveness has been found to vary. This study uses data from the Ohio Program of Intensive English (OPIE) at Ohio University to examine the value of two commercially available…

The role of the community college is constantly evolving. At its inception in the early 1900's, the community college's broad focus was to provide quality, affordable education to the members of the community the college serves. Today, that focus remains the same, but has also morphed into one that meets the specific needs of its students. One of…

This election factsheet highlights the following points: (1) While the GCSE pass rate has increased since its introduction, this doesn't tell us very much about how standards have changed. Evidence from international surveys suggests that education standards have remained stable. Stopping the use of modules and limiting resits is likely to reduce…

There are increasing numbers of non-native English speaking applicants to Canadian universities (AUCC 2008a, 2010), which are committed to promoting linguistic and cultural diversity (AUCC 2008b). One result of this trend is that university admissions officers, as gatekeepers, are faced with a growing and potentially confusing array of language…

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of alternative approaches to administering and scoring curriculum-based measurement for written expression. Specifically, three response durations (3, 5, and 7 minutes) and six score types (total words written, words spelled correctly, percent of words spelled correctly,…

Background: Sentence construction and syntactic organization are known to be poor in children with specific language impairments (SLI), but little is known about the way in which children with SLI approach language tasks, and static standardized tests contribute little to the differentiation of skills within the population of children with…

Recent federal investments in early childhood assessment systems are the result of a national need for developmentally appropriate, psychometrically sound instruments to monitor young children and evaluate the effectiveness of their learning programs. In this paper, we examined the association between teachers' perceptions of their students at the…

We study the properties of two specification tests that have been applied to a variety of estimators in the context of value-added measures (VAMs) of teacher and school quality: the Hausman test for choosing between random and fixed effects and a test for feedback (sometimes called a "falsification test"). We discuss theoretical…

Early identification of children experiencing difficulties in learning is essential for timely and effective intervention. The aim of this study was to develop a screening instrument for identifying students with learning difficulties at the end of the first term of Primary 1 in Hong Kong. This paper describes the development and validation of a…

Atkinson and Geiser (2009) make a strong argument for moving to a new form of college admissions testing using curriculum-based achievement tests. In making their case, however, they exaggerate the weaknesses of current tests such as the ACT and SAT by minimizing these tests' predictive utility and claiming a stronger relationship to socioeconomic…