Standardized testing is an integral part of the English and American education systems. However, the use of high-stakes testing has unintended consequences, one of which is test anxiety. Over the last 50 years, increased attention has been directed to developing tools to identify students experiencing test anxiety. However, many test anxiety…

Equating methods are designed to adjust between alternate versions of assessments targeting the same content at the same level, with the aim that scores from the different versions can be used interchangeably. The statistical processes used in equating have, however, been extended to statistically "link" assessments that differ, such as…

Educational reform priorities such as emphasis on quantitative modelling (QM) have positioned undergraduate biology instructors as designers of QM experiences to engage students in authentic science practices that support the development of data-driven and evidence-based reasoning. Yet, little is known about how biology instructors adapt to the…

Tatsuoka (1984) suggested several extended caution indices and their standardized versions that have been used as person-fit statistics by researchers such as Drasgow, Levine, and McLaughlin (1987), Glas and Meijer (2003), and Molenaar and Hoijtink (1990). However, these indices are only defined for tests with dichotomous items. This paper extends…

In this article, the authors applied profile analysis to Maths exam data to demonstrate how different exam forms, differing in difficulty and length, can be reported and easily interpreted. The results were presented for different groups of participants and for different institutions in different Maths domains by evaluating the balance. Some…

The purpose of the current investigation was to describe how the artificial neural networks (ANNs) can be used to interpret student performance on cognitive diagnostic assessments (CDAs) and evaluate the performances of ANNs using simulation results. CDAs are designed to measure student performance on problem-solving tasks and provide useful…

The growing use of scales in survey questionnaires warrants the need to address how does polytomous differential item functioning (DIF) affect observed scale score comparisons. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of DIF on the type I error and effect size of the independent samples t-test on the observed total scale scores. A…

Results from Rasch analysis of GCSE and GCE A level data over a period of four years suggest that the standards of examinations in different subjects are not consistent in terms of the levels of the latent trait specified in the Rasch model required to achieve the same grades. Variability in statistical standards between subjects exists at both…

One of the most important findings to emerge from recent reading comprehension research is that there are large differences between tests in what they assess--specifically, the extent to which performance depends on word recognition versus listening comprehension skills. Because this research used ordinary least squares regression, it is not clear…

The present study aimed to represent the innovative assessments that support students' learning in STEM education through using the integrative framework for Cognitive Diagnostic Modeling (CDM). This framework is based on three components, cognition, observation, and interpretation (National Research Council, 2001). Specifically, this dissertation…

The purpose of this study was to enhance the meaning of the scores of an English-language test by developing performance levels and descriptors for reporting overall test performance. The levels and descriptors were intended to accompany the total scale scores of TOEFL Junior® Standard, an international test of English as a second/foreign…

In adolescence research, the treatment of measurement reliability is often fragmented, and it is not always clear how different reliability coefficients are related. We show that generalizability theory (G-theory) is a comprehensive framework of measurement reliability, encompassing all other reliability methods (e.g., Pearson "r,"…

ACT reporting categories and ACT Readiness Ranges are new features added to the ACT score reports starting in fall 2016. For each reporting category, the number correct score, the maximum points possible, the percent correct, and the ACT Readiness Range, along with an indicator of whether the reporting category score falls within the Readiness…

Variation in test performance among examinees from different regions or national jurisdictions is often partially attributed to differences in the degree of content correspondence between local school or training program curricula, and the test of interest. This posited relationship between test-curriculum correspondence, or "alignment,"…

In recent years, the social sciences have seen a resurgence in the study of divergent thinking (DT) measures. However, many of these recent advances have focused on abstract, decontextualized DT tasks (e.g., list as many things as you can think of that have wheels). This study provides a new perspective by exploring the reliability and validity…