Is processing of conceptual information as robust as processing of perceptual information early in development? Existing empirical evidence is insufficient to answer this question. To examine this issue, 3- to 5-year-old children were presented with a flexible categorization task, in which target items (e.g., an open red umbrella) shared category…

In his 2003 article in the "Harvard Educational Review" (HER), Freedle claimed that the SAT was both culturally and statistically biased and proposed a solution to ameliorate this bias. The author argued (Dorans, 2004a) that these claims were based on serious computational errors. In particular, he focused on how Freedle's table 2 was…

In their paper "Unfair Treatment? The Case of Freedle, the SAT, and the Standardization Approach to Differential Item Functioning" (Santelices & Wilson, 2010), the authors studied claims of differential effects of the SAT on Latinos and African Americans through the methodology of differential item functioning (DIF). Previous…

This study investigated gender differences on the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) as a function of item and response types. Accordingly, 86 male and 109 female undergraduate students completed the MRT without time limits. Responses were coded as reflecting two correct (CC), one correct and one wrong (CW), two wrong (WW), one correct and one blank…

Assessing students' historical understanding has been a long-standing challenge in history education. One of the widely used tools for accomplishing this task is the large-scale standardized test, the results of which are used as an indicator of student knowledge and skills in the social sciences/history. At the national level, the National…

This paper addresses the determination of statistically desirable response rates in students' surveys, with emphasis on assessing the effect of underlying variability in the student evaluation of teaching (SET). We discuss factors affecting the determination of adequate response rates and highlight challenges caused by non-response and lack of…

Purpose: To examine the factorial structure of the "Coping Strategy Questionnaire"-24 (CSQ-24) in a sample of Canadians with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Method: The sample included 171 workers' compensation clients (50.9% men) recruited from outpatient rehabilitation facilities in Canada. Mean age of participants was 42.45 years (SD =…

International examination results have already influenced many countries to make radical reforms in education system. According to these results countries have been categorized as high, middle and low achievement in education. Turkey has also taken these results into consideration quite seriously and started to investigate to what extent there are…

This study investigated the effects of two different true-false questions on memory awareness and long-term retention of knowledge. Participants took four subsequent knowledge tests on curriculum learning material that they studied at different retention intervals prior to the start of this study (i.e. prior to the first test). At the first and…

In this study, differential item functioning (DIF) trends were examined for English language learners (ELLs) versus non-ELL students in third and tenth grades on a large-scale reading assessment. To facilitate the analyses, a meta-analytic DIF technique was employed. The results revealed that items requiring knowledge of words and phrases in…

Students who are the first in their families to attend college are less likely to earn a college degree as compared to their continuing-generation peers. In efforts to increase college graduation rates for first-generation college students, support programs designed to assist first-generation college students are increasing in numbers. These…

Within a response to intervention framework, teachers regularly base important instructional decisions on the results of formative assessments. The validity of these decisions depends, in part, upon the validity of the inference of students' skills drawn from the formative assessment. If formative assessment items do not genuinely measure the…

The least squares distance method (LSDM) was used in a cognitive diagnostic analysis of TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) items administered to 4,498 8th-grade students from seven geographical regions of Turkey, extending analysis of attributes from content to process and skill attributes. Logit item positions were…

Effective assessment is a cornerstone in measuring student learning in higher education. For a course in Numerical Methods, a concept test was used as an assessment tool to measure student learning and its improvement during the course. The concept test comprised 16 multiple choice questions and was given in the beginning and end of the class for…

When using IRT models in Educational Achievement Testing, the model is as a rule too simple to catch all the relevant dimensions in the test. It is argued that a simple model may nevertheless be useful but that it can be complemented with additional analyses. Such an analysis, called profile analysis, is proposed and applied to the reading data of…