It is imperative to collect validity evidence prior to interpreting and using test scores. During the process of collecting validity evidence, test developers should consider whether test scores are contaminated by sources of extraneous information. This is referred to as construct irrelevant variance, or the "degree to which test scores are…

One of the most serious forms of cheating occurs when examinees have item preknowledge and prior access to secure test material before taking an exam for the purpose of obtaining an inflated test score. Examinees that cheat and have prior knowledge of test content before testing may have an unfair advantage over examinees that do not cheat. Item…

This convergent, parallel, mixed-methods study with qualitative and quantitative content analysis methods was conducted to identify what type of thinking is required by the College and Career Readiness Assessment (CCRA+) by (a) determining the frequency and percentage of questions categorized as higher-level thinking within each cell of Hess'…

The Rasch model is commonly used to calibrate multiple choice items. However, the sample sizes needed to estimate the Rasch model can be difficult to attain (e.g., consider a small testing company trying to pretest new items). With small sample sizes, auxiliary information besides the item responses may improve estimation of the item parameters.…

Multiple-select multiple-choice items, or multiple-choice items with more than one correct answer, are used to quickly assess content on standardized assessments. Because there are multiple keys to these item types, there are also multiple ways to score student responses to these items. The purpose of this study was to investigate how changing the…

Despite the increasing demand for diagnostic information, observed subscores have been often reported to lack adequate psychometric qualities such as reliability, distinctiveness, and validity. Therefore, several statistical techniques based on CTT and IRT frameworks have been proposed to improve the quality of subscores. More recently, DCM has…

The purpose of this study was to investigate developmental music aptitude with a broader sample in order to propose national norms. Research questions were: 1) To what extent are published Primary Measures of Music Aptitude (PMMA) norms different from those established using a current sample? 2) Are there comparative differences in PMMA item…

Organic chemistry is a class well known to be difficult and necessary for many careers in the sciences, and as a result, has garnered interest in researching ways to improve student learning and comprehension. One potential way involves using eye tracking techniques to understand how students visually examine questions. Organic chemistry involves…

This research examined the Chinese National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) in mathematics before and after the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, specifically covering the periods 1952-1965 and 1977-1984. The central focus was on the organization, structure, and content of the examinations, as well as their influence on and interaction…

To better understand Tennessee's new standardized science assessments, this quantitative study utilized a nonexperimental, descriptive-comparative design to compare the readability of the long-used science TCAP assessment with the newly created science TNReady assessment in grades three, four, and five. As new standards in the state boast higher…

The following is a five-chapter dissertation surrounding the use of text mining techniques for better understanding the language of mathematics items from standardized tests to improve linguistic equity of these items to support assessment of English Language Learners. Introduction: The dissertation begins with an overview of the problem that…

This mixed methods study aimed to categorize and analyze the frequencies and percentages of complex thinking in the PARCC practices assessments in English Language Arts grade 10 and Geometry. The Hess' Cognitive Rigor Matrix was used for the first part of the study to code each of the PARCC assessment questions in Language Arts grade 10 and…

This work presents a study that used distributed language representations of test items to model test item difficulty. Distributed language representations are low-dimensional numeric representations of written language inspired and generated by artificial neural network architecture. The research begins with a discussion of the importance of item…

The digital transformation in educational assessment has led to the proliferation of large-scale data, offering unprecedented opportunities to enhance language learning, and testing through machine learning (ML) techniques. Drawing on the extensive data generated by online English language assessments, this dissertation investigates the efficacy…

There is an increased demand on nursing faculty to provide quality teaching and assessment. Nursing faculty are required to ensure accurate assessment of learning through testing and outcome measurement that are critical elements of the evaluation process. Likewise, nursing faculty should implement a logical evaluation system. However, the…