The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of assessment, creating new challenges for measurement professionals, including big data management, test security, and analyzing new validity evidence. In response to these challenges, "Machine Learning" (ML) emerges as an increasingly important skill in the toolbox of measurement…

Researchers often study dynamic processes of latent variables in everyday life, such as the interplay of positive and negative affect over time. An intuitive approach is to first estimate the measurement model of the latent variables, then compute factor scores, and finally use these factor scores as observed scores in vector autoregressive…

Laboratory automation and data science are valuable new skills for all chemists, but most pedagogical activities involving automation to date have focused on upper-level coursework. Herein, we describe a combined computational and experimental lab suitable for a first-year undergraduate general chemistry course, in which these topics are…

This article develops new closed-form variance expressions for power analyses for commonly used difference-in-differences (DID) and comparative interrupted time series (CITS) panel data estimators. The main contribution is to incorporate variation in treatment timing into the analysis. The power formulas also account for other key design features…

Many states and school districts in the United States use standardized test scores to compute annual measures of student achievement progress and then use school-level averages of these growth measures for various reporting and diagnostic purposes. These aggregate growth measures can vary consequentially from year to year for the same school,…

The literature provides multiple measures of diversity along a single demographic dimension, but when it comes to studying the interaction of multiple diversity types (e.g. age, gender, and race), the field of useable measures diminishes. We present the use of decision trees as a machine learning technique to automatically identify the…

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…

Instrument measurement conducted with Rasch analysis is a common process in language assessment research. A recent systematic review of 215 studies involving Rasch analysis in language testing and applied linguistics research reported that 23 different software packages had been utilized. However, none of the analyses were conducted with one of…

Various methods and tools have been proposed to overcome the learning obstacles for Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). However, it remains difficult especially for novice learners. The problem may be not only adopting an instructional method, but also an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Learners employ IDEs as a means to solve programming…

A course was developed at Austin Peay State University (Tennessee) which offered an opportunity for hands-on experience with the essential components of modern analytical instruments. The course aimed to provide college students with the skills necessary to construct a simple model instrument, including the design and fabrication of electronic…