Item response tree (IRTree) models are a flexible framework to control self-reported trait measurements for response styles. To this end, IRTree models decompose the responses to rating items into sub-decisions, which are assumed to be made on the basis of either the trait being measured or a response style, whereby the effects of such person…

The interpretations of test scores in secure, high-stakes environments are dependent on several assumptions, one of which is that examinee responses to items are independent and no enemy items are included on the same forms. This paper documents the development and implementation of a C#-based application that uses Natural Language Processing…

Response styles introduce construct-irrelevant variance as a result of respondents systematically responding to Likert-type items regardless of content. Methods to account for response styles through data analysis as well as approaches to mitigating the effects of response styles during data collection have been well-documented. Recent approaches…

Recently, psychometricians and researchers have voiced their concern over the exploration of language test items in light of Messick's validation framework. Validity has been central to test development and use; however, it has not received due attention in language tests having grave consequences for test takers. The present study sought to…

Although intelligence tests are among the most widely used psychological instruments in school psychology, at the current time, little is known about how practitioners interpret them. The primary purpose of this study, therefore, was to determine how intelligence tests are interpreted by school psychologists, particularly for the identification of…

Educators commonly use school climate survey scores to inform and evaluate interventions for equitably improving learning and reducing educational disparities. Unfortunately, validity evidence to support these (and other) score uses often falls short. In response, Whitehouse et al. proposed a collaborative, two-part validity testing framework for…

When you look at an image, what do you see? What does the image say to you? What do you think about? What meaning do you infer? These questions may blur together, but they can be expanded individually and uniquely into a multitude of responses. Your initial thoughts are yours. You are silently debating meaning within yourself. If I interject a new…

Unfolding item response theory (IRT) models are important alternatives to dominance IRT models in describing the response processes on self-report tests. Their usage is common in personality measures, since they indicate potential differentiations in test score interpretation. This paper aims to gain a better insight into the structure of trait…

Studies have shown that test-takers tend to use keyword-matching strategies when taking listening tests. Keyword-matching involves matching content words in the written modality (test items) against those heard in the audio text. However, no research has investigated the effect of such keywords in listening tests, or the impact of gazing upon…

The computer-supported writing assessment (CSWA) has been widely used to reduce instructor workload and provide real-time feedback. Interpretability of CSWA draws extensive attention because it can benefit the validity, transparency, and knowledge-aware feedback of academic writing assessments. This study proposes a novel assessment tool,…

Researchers have documented the impact of rater effects, or raters' tendencies to give different ratings than would be expected given examinee achievement levels, in performance assessments. However, the degree to which rater effects influence person fit, or the reasonableness of test-takers' achievement estimates given their response patterns,…

Alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) have historically lacked broad validity evidence and an overall evaluation of the extent to which evidence supports intended uses of results. An expanding body of validation literature, the funding of two AA-AAS consortia, and advances in computer-based assessment have…

Individual-student score reports sometimes include information about precision of scores (i.e., measurement error). In this study, we specifically investigated if parents understand this information when presented. We conducted an online experimental study where 196 parents of middle school children, from various parts of the country, were…

Technical documentation for educational tests focuses primarily on properties of individual scores at single points in time. Reliability, standard errors of measurement, item parameter estimates, fit statistics, and linking constants are standard technical features that external stakeholders use to evaluate items and individual scale scores.…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factorial invariance of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Fifth Edition (WISC-V) between genders in a sample of Black students in an urban, public school district. Few researchers test the validity of cognitive assessments on Black samples and even fewer do so utilizing samples other than…