Trend scoring constructed response items (i.e. rescoring Time A responses at Time B) gives rise to two-way data that follow a product multinomial distribution rather than the multinomial distribution that is usually assumed. Recent work has shown that the difference in sampling model can have profound negative effects on statistics usually used to…

The problem of local item dependencies (LIDs) is very common in personality and attitude measures, particularly in those that measure narrow-bandwidth dimensions. At the structural level, these dependencies can be modeled by using extended factor analytic (FA) solutions that include correlated residuals. However, the effects that LIDs have on the…

Traditional psychometric guidelines suggest that at least several hundred respondents are needed to obtain accurate parameter estimates under the Rasch model. However, recent research indicates that Rasch equating results in accurate parameter estimates with sample sizes as small as 25. Item parameter drift under the Rasch model has been…

When an assessment undergoes changes to the administration or instrument, bridge studies are typically used to try to ensure comparability of scores before and after the change. Among the most common and powerful is the common population linking design, with the use of a linear transformation to link scores to the metric of the original…

This rejoinder keeps the original focus on statistical computing pertaining to the correlation of student achievement between mathematics and science from the Trend in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Albeit the availability of student performance data in TIMSS and the emphasis of the inter-subject connection in the Next Generation Science…

The Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) learning cycle improves understanding of the connection between empirical results and theoretical concepts when students engage in hands-on experimentation. This study explored whether training students to use a POE strategy when learning from social science texts that describe theories and experimental results…

In an earlier paper, we presented methods for estimating achievement gaps when test scores are coarsened into a small number of ordered categories, preventing fine-grained distinctions between individual scores. We demonstrated that gaps can nonetheless be estimated with minimal bias across a broad range of simulated and real coarsened data…

Ho and Reardon (2012) present methods for estimating achievement gaps when test scores are coarsened into a small number of ordered categories, preventing fine-grained distinctions between individual scores. They demonstrate that gaps can nonetheless be estimated with minimal bias across a broad range of simulated and real coarsened data…

Since 2010, the whole national cohort Key Stage 2 (KS2) National Curriculum test in science in England has been replaced with a sampling test taken by pupils at the age of 11 from a nationally representative sample of schools annually. The study reported in this paper compares the performance of different subgroups of the samples (classified by…

For testing programs that administer multiple forms within a year and across years, score equating is used to ensure that scores can be used interchangeably. In an ideal world, samples sizes are large and representative of populations that hardly change over time, and very reliable alternate test forms are built with nearly identical psychometric…

The assessment of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) by means of the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule has received a remarkable popularity in the social sciences. Using a meta-analytic tool--namely, reliability generalization (RG)--population reliability scores of both scales have been investigated on the basis of a random…

Classroom context and climate are inherently classroom-level (L2) constructs, but applied researchers sometimes--inappropriately--represent them by student-level (L1) responses in single-level models rather than more appropriate multilevel models. Here we focus on important conceptual issues (distinctions between climate and contextual variables;…

Research pertaining to the distortion of the squared canonical correlation coefficient has traditionally been limited to the effects of sampling error and associated correction formulas. The purpose of this study was to compare the degree of attenuation of the squared canonical correlation coefficient under varying conditions of score reliability.…

The work reported in this paper reflects a collaborative effort of many individuals representing multiple organizations. It began during a session at the October 2008 meeting of TILSA when a representative of a member state asked the group if any of their programs had experienced unexpected fluctuations in the annual state assessment scores, and…

This report examines the differences in impact estimates and standard errors that arise when these are derived using state achievement tests only (as pre-tests and post-tests), study-administered tests only, or some combination of state- and study-administered tests. State tests may yield different evaluation results relative to a test that is…