This study aims to investigate the effects of item exposure control methods on measurement precision and on test security under various item selection methods and item pool characteristics. In this study, the Randomesque (with item group sizes of 5 and 10), Sympson-Hetter, and Fade-Away methods were used as item exposure control methods. Moreover,…

This inquiry is an investigation of item response theory (IRT) proficiency estimators' accuracy under multistage testing (MST). We chose a two-stage MST design that includes four modules (one at Stage 1, three at Stage 2) and three difficulty paths (low, middle, high). We assembled various two-stage MST panels (i.e., forms) by manipulating two…

We analyzed 2010 US National Emergency Department Sample data and ran regression models to test the hypotheses that individuals with ASD are more likely to have non-traumatic dental condition (NTDC)-related emergency department (ED) visits and to incur greater costs for these visits than those without ASD. There were nearly 2.3 million…

Deciding whether to grant test accommodations for a student with disabilities is challenging and controversial. Current accommodations practice is seldom research based, and professionals charged with such decisions often reach different conclusions. The result can be either unnecessary accommodations that compromise test validity or the denial of…

How to measure quality of early childhood education and care is an evergreen topic of research and discussion in various disciplines. Here, we propose a contribution from developmental neuroscience and neuroendocrinology. In this secondary data analysis study, we tested the hypothesis that salivary cortisol can serve as a reliable objective…

Directions used in curriculum-based measurement of reading (CBM-R) currently ask students to "do your best reading." The purpose of this study was to examine whether varying these verbal directions would affect CBM-R performance and whether these alternative directions would influence the important relation between CBM-R performance and…

Background: Problematic alcohol use is characterized by disrupted associative processing of environmental clues, where problematic drinkers interpret ambiguous, alcohol-relevant clues in an alcohol-related way. The present study examined the strength of this interpretation bias in a large sample (N = 230) of light and problematic drinkers with and…

Every two years, institutions sponsoring credentialing programs in California are required to submit a detailed biennial report, which includes data on at least four key assessments showing 1) candidate competence and/or 2) program efficacy. This article reports the types of assessments used from 25 institutions that completed biennial reports for…

Gender schema theory (GST) posits that children approach opportunities perceived as gender appropriate, avoiding those deemed gender inappropriate, in turn affecting gender-differentiated career trajectories. To test the hypothesis that children's gender salience filters (GSF--tendency to attend to gender) moderate these processes, 62 preschool…

While it is frequently argued that assessment sits at the heart of the learning process, in practice assessment often remains narrowly focused on qualifications and reporting achievements, driven by institutional and societal aspirations and tensions such as accountability and economic well being. Yet, the need for assessment to account for the…

The present longitudinal study, based on existing theoretical tenets, explored a conceptual model that depicted four major orientations: optimism, self-efficacy, and academic well-being. An important question for consideration, in this case, involved the testing of different untested trajectories that could explain and predict individuals'…

A survey of 488 college students was conducted in Turkey to investigate the relationship between social network usage, shame and Internet addiction. It was hypothesized that a relationship between shame and social network usage was mediated by Internet addiction. First of all, according to simple regression analysis, it was found that shame…

The present study examines narrative competence and its relationships with syntactic and prosodic skills in preschool children. The narrative skills of 30 typically developing Italian children were assessed during their first year of kindergarten attendance (T1) and again one year later (T2). A picture book was used to elicit children's…

A green organic-inorganic laboratory experiment has been developed in which students prepare a self-assembling iron cage in D[subscript 2]O at room temperature. The tetrahedral cage captures a small, neutral molecule such as cyclohexane or tetrahydrofuran. [Superscript 1]H NMR analysis distinguishes captured and free guests through diagnostic…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a treadmill walk-jog-run exercise test previously validated in adults and physical activity questionnaire data to estimate maximum oxygen consumption (VO[subscript 2]max) in boys (n = 62) and girls (n = 66) aged 12 to 17 years old. Methods: Data were collected from Physical Activity…