The Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA) launched in 2016 to provide nationally comparable, publicly available test score data for U.S. public school districts. I introduce a special collection of six articles that each use SEDA to lend their questions and findings a national scope. Together, these articles demonstrate a range of uses of SEDA…

A central issue when measuring students' attitudes toward an object is the children's understanding of that object, in this case, technology. Studies have shown that schoolchildren often describe technology narrowly as different kinds of technological objects; more specifically, modern electrical objects. This may mean that we have been measuring…

Network models of the WAIS-IV based on regularized partial correlation matrices have been reported to outperform latent variable models based on uncorrected correlation matrices. The present study sought to compare network and latent variable models using both partial and uncorrected correlation matrices with both types of models. The results show…

Purpose: The present study aims to evaluate how the reliabilities computed using a, Stratified a, Angoff-Feldt, and Feldt-Raju estimators may differ when sample size (500, 1000, and 2000) and item type ratio of dichotomous to polytomous items (2:1; 1:1, 1:2) included in the scale are varied. Research Methods: In this study, Cronbach's a,…

In order to reach valid and reliable test scores, various test theories have been developed, and one of them is nonparametric item response theory (NIRT). Mokken Models are the most widely known NIRT models which are useful for small samples and short tests. Mokken Package is useful for Mokken Scale Analysis. An important issue about validity is…

Confidence and enthusiasm are considered critical to sales performance, as well as job performance and satisfaction. However, the literature has little discussion of how confidence and enthusiasm impact the overall sales process. We examine the National Collegiate Sales Contest (NCSC) scoring system within marketing classes and note that there are…

Background: The originality of divergent thinking (DT) production is one of the most critical indicators of creative potential. It is commonly scored using the statistical infrequency of responses relative to all responses provided in a given sample. Aims: Response frequency estimates vary in terms of measurement precision. This issue has been…

Pearson now uses a technology-based testing platform, Q-Interactive, to administer tests previously available in paper versions. The same norms are used for both versions; Pearson's in-house equivalency studies indicated that both versions are equated. The goal of the current study is to independently evaluate equivalency findings. For the current…

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is a key component of efforts to improve sexual and reproductive outcomes for young people. While many governments have established policies and curricula for CSE, there are no quantitative measures of the quality of their implementation in schools. We describe the construction of a school-level index to…

Retrospective pretests ask respondents to report after an intervention on their aptitudes, knowledge, or beliefs before the intervention. A primary reason to administer a retrospective pretest is that in some situations, program participants may over the course of an intervention revise or recalibrate their prior understanding of program content,…

Testing programs are often interested in using a student growth measure. This article presents analytic derivations of the accuracy of common student growth measures on both the raw scale of the test and the percentile rank scale in terms of the proportional reduction in mean squared error and the squared correlation between the estimator and…

Assessing youth psychopathology involves collecting multiple informants' reports. Yet, multi-informant reports often disagree, necessitating integrative strategies that optimize predictive power. The "Trait" score approach leverages principal components analysis (PCA) to account for the context and perspective from which informants…

The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) is a multicycle survey of adult skills and competencies sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The survey examines a range of basic skills in the information age and assesses these adult skills consistently across participating…

In this study, we compared the results of 27 special education teachers' evaluations using two different observation instruments, the Framework for Teaching (FFT), and the Explicit Instruction observation protocol of the Recognizing Effective Special Education Teachers (RESET) observation system. Results indicate differences in the rank-ordering…

All nurses may be obliged to care for patients at the end of life. Baccalaureate nursing education should prepare nurses to provide this care, but best practice for end of life care education has not been established. Nurses are not adequately prepared to care for dying patients and grieving families. This research study explored the effectiveness…