In continuous testing programs, some items are repeatedly used across test administrations, and statistical methods are often used to evaluate whether items become compromised due to examinees' preknowledge. In this study, we proposed a residual method to detect compromised items when a test can be partitioned into two subsets of items: secure…

Analyses that reveal how treatment effects vary allow researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to better understand the efficacy of educational interventions. In practice, however, standard statistical methods for addressing heterogeneous treatment effects (HTE) fail to address the HTE that may exist "within" outcome measures. In…

Parameter linking in item response theory is generally necessary to adjust for differences between the true values for the same item and ability parameters due to the use of different identifiability restrictions in different calibrations. The research reported in this article explores a precision-weighted (PW) approach to the problem of…

In psychological and survey research, the prevalence and serious consequences of careless responses from unmotivated participants are well known. In this study, we propose to iteratively detect careless responders and cleanse the data by removing their responses. The careless responders are detected using person-fit statistics. In two simulation…

The design and psychometric methodology of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is constantly evolving to meet the changing interests and demands stemming from a rapidly shifting educational landscape. NAEP has been built on strong research foundations that include conducting extensive evaluations and comparisons before new…

Questionnaires that include items eliciting count responses are becoming increasingly common in psychology. This study proposes methodological techniques to overcome some of the challenges associated with analyzing multivariate item response data that exhibit zero inflation, maximum inflation, and heaping at preferred digits. The modeling…

David Thissen, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Quantitative Program at the University of North Carolina, has consulted and served on technical advisory committees for assessment programs that use item response theory (IRT) over the past couple decades. He has come to the conclusion that there are usually two purposes…

Two possible standard error formulas for the polytomous differential item functioning index proposed by N. J. Dorans and A. P. Schmitt (1991) were derived. These standard errors, and associated hypothesis-testing procedures, were evaluated through simulated data. The standard error that performed better is based on N. Mantel's (1963)…

Simplified formulas are proposed for computing the standard errors of equipercentile equating for continuous and discrete test scores. These formulas are easily extended to more complicated equating designs. Results from a study of 719 subjects taking an English test indicated that the formulas work reasonably well for moderate-size samples. (SLD)