In their nascent stages, charter schools formed under competing ideologies. In academic circles, charter schools were envisioned as pedagogical laboratories that would allow for educator- and community-driven school improvement. In other circles, charter schools emerged as a free-market reform driven by accountability, choice, and growth. Amid the…

Solution-focused (SF) approaches are widely used in schools. The present study examined the effects of a central SF technique--"scaling"--on female secondary students' improvement expectancy (IE) and commitment to improvement (CTI). Popular follow-up questions were also tested. In Experiment 1, 120 students were randomly assigned to a…

The aim of this study is to compare the results of correlation coefficient estimation of reliability with those obtained through the Bland-Altman plot technique. The scale was first divided into two halves using three different approaches. A linear and high-level relationship was found between the scale scores obtained from the halved forms.…

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, is the nation's leading source for rigorous, independent education research, evaluation, and statistics. IES's National Center for Education Research (NCER) supports rigorous research that addresses the nation's most pressing education needs from early…

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, is the nation's leading source for rigorous, independent education research, evaluation, and statistics. IES's National Center for Education Research supports rigorous research that addresses the nation's most pressing education needs from early…

One of the primary goals of international large-scale assessments in education is the comparison of country means in student achievement. This article introduces a framework for discussing differential item functioning (DIF) for such mean comparisons. We compare three different linking methods: concurrent scaling based on full invariance,…

Vertical scales are frequently developed using common item nonequivalent group linking. In this design, one can use upper-grade, lower-grade, or mixed-grade common items to estimate the linking constants that underlie the absolute measurement of growth. Using the Rasch model and a dataset from Curriculum Associates' i-Ready Diagnostic in math in…

When analyzing large-scale assessments (LSAs) that use complex sampling designs, it is important to account for probability sampling using weights. However, the use of these weights in multilevel models has been widely debated, particularly regarding their application at different levels of the model. Yet, no consensus has been reached on the best…

Computational thinking (CT) is an important 21st-century skill. This paper aims at more useful CT assessment. Available evaluation instruments are reviewed; two generally accepted CT evaluation tools are selected for a comprehensive CT assessment: the CTt, a performance test, and the CTS, a self-assessment instrument. The sample comprises 202 high…

When scaling psychological tests with methods of item response theory it is necessary to investigate to what extent the responses correspond to the model predictions. In addition to the statistical evaluation of item misfit, the question arises as to its practical significance. Although item removal is undesirable for several reasons, its…

Enabling comparable scores across grades is of interest for policymakers to evaluate educational systems, for researchers to investigate substantive questions, and for teachers to infer student growth. This study implemented a vertical scaling design to numeracy tests given in grades 5 and 8 as part of the Norwegian national testing system. Our…

Background: Standard methods for analysing data from large-scale assessments (LSA) cannot merely be adopted if hierarchical (or multilevel) regression modelling should be applied. Currently various approaches exist; they all follow generally a design-based model of estimation using the pseudo maximum likelihood method and adjusted weights for the…

The Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings has been investigating efforts to scale and sustain evidence-based initiatives leading to large-scale improvements in children's learning. CUE has been implementing a series of collaborative action research initiatives called Real-time Scaling Labs (RTSL), in partnership with local institutions…

Intersectional approaches have become increasingly important for explaining educational inequalities because they help to improve our understanding of how individual experiences are shaped by simultaneous membership in multiple social categories that are associated with interconnected systems of power, privilege, and oppression. For years, there…

One major aim of international large-scale assessments (ILSA) like PISA is to monitor changes in student performance over time. To accomplish this task, a set of common items (i.e., link items) is repeatedly administered in each assessment. Linking methods based on item response theory (IRT) models are used to align the results from the different…