An accurate assessment of cognitive abilities in populations that differ from the majority in cultural and linguistic characteristics is one of the main challenges in cognitive testing. Previously developed methods for assessment of the validity of cognitive scores in individuals with diverse backgrounds, such as the Culture-Language…

School-based universal screening in the social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) domains allows for the early identification of students in need of SEB support. Importantly, equitable assessment in universal screening for the SEB domains is critical to engage in accurate and ethical data-based decision-making. Measurement invariance is one method…

The Washington Assessment of Risk and Needs of Students (WARNS) is a brief self-report measure designed for schools, courts, and youth service providers to identify student behaviors and contexts related to school truancy. Empirical support for WARNS item invariance between ethnic groups is lacking. This study examined differential item…

Emotion recognition (ER) involves understanding what others are feeling by interpreting nonverbal behavior, including facial expressions. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of a web-based social ER assessment designed for children in kindergarten through third grade. Data were collected from two separate samples…

This study reports an independent investigation of the psychometric properties of Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), a teacher-rated measure of school readiness for preschool-aged children. In a sample of 2,031 low-income, 3- to 5-year-old children attending Head Start, we tested three measurement models: a higher order one-factor…

Individually administered intelligence measures are commonly used in diagnostic work, but there is a continuing need for research investigating possible test bias among these measures. One current intelligence measure, the Differential Ability Scales, Second Edition (DAS-II), is a test with growing popularity. The issue of test bias, however, has…

The "Assessment of Culturally and Contextually Relevant Supports" (ACCReS) was developed in response to the need for well-constructed instruments to measure teachers' cultural responsiveness and guide decision-making related to professional development needs. The current study sought to evaluate the presence of differential item…

The home learning environment (HLE) index is composed of seven questions regarding educational parent-child interactions. To compare the psychometric characteristics of the six items of HLE index between the two different contexts of Germany and Iran, a sample including 468 preschool children from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS),…

Differential item/test functioning (DIF/DTF) are routine procedures to detect item/test unfairness as an explanation for group performance difference. However, unequal sample sizes and small sample sizes have an impact on the statistical power of the DIF/DTF detection procedures. Furthermore, DIF/DTF cannot be used for two test forms without…

Although the racial/ethnic demographics in the United States are changing, few studies evaluate the cultural and linguistic responsiveness of commonly used autism spectrum disorder screening and diagnostic assessment measures. The purpose of this study is to evaluate item and test functioning of the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales (ASRS) in a sample…

The purpose of this study was to apply two types of Differential Item Functioning (DIF), net and global DIF, as well as the framework of Differential Step Functioning (DSF) to real testing data to investigate measurement invariance related to test language. Data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)-2006 polytomously scored…

We investigated the extent to which the observed gender differences in mental rotation ability among the 2,468 freshmen studying engineering at a Midwest public university attributed to the gender bias of a test. The Revised Purdue Spatial Visualization Tests: Visualization of Rotations (Revised PSVT:R) is a spatial test frequently used to measure…

The Mathematics Fluency and Calculation Tests (MFaCTs) are a series of measures designed to assess for arithmetic calculation skills and calculation fluency in children ages 6 through 18. There are five main purposes of the MFaCTs: (1) identifying students who are behind in basic math fact automaticity; (2) evaluating possible delays in arithmetic…

The present study examined measurement invariance across gender and gender differences on two measures of test anxiety developed for U.S. middle and high school, and college students. It was hypothesized that measurement invariance and gender differences would be found on the two measures of test anxiety, suggesting no separate scoring system is…

The Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills-II (CIBS-II) is a diagnostic battery intended for children in grades 1st through 6th. The aim of this study was to test for item invariance, or differential item functioning (DIF), of the CIBS-II across sex in the standardization sample through the use of item response theory DIF detection…