Educational tests are standardized so that all examinees are tested on the same material, under the same testing conditions, and with the same scoring protocols. This uniformity is designed to provide a level "playing field" for all examinees so that the test is "the same" for everyone. Thus, standardization is designed to…

Many authors have proposed the existence of common principles of counselling and psychotherapeutic change. However, little is known about how practitioners use these change principles. A sample of 373 Czech psychotherapists and counsellors participated in an online survey and rated their use of 10 psychotherapy change principles in their practice…

In this digital ITEMS module, Dr. Brian Leventhal and Dr. Allison Ames provide an overview of "Monte Carlo simulation studies" (MCSS) in "item response theory" (IRT). MCSS are utilized for a variety of reasons, one of the most compelling being that they can be used when analytic solutions are impractical or nonexistent because…

Lexical sophistication has been an important indicator of productive lexical proficiency for almost 30 years. Although lexical sophistication has most often been operationalized as the proportion of low frequency words in a text, a growing body of research has indicated that a number of indices such as concreteness, hypernymy, and n-gram…

The focus of this study was to look at how the seating layout effects participation and assessment performance overall as a class. The participants were 23 fourth grade students at a Louisiana elementary school. Three layouts were tested: small groups, horseshoe, and pairs. This study included three, two-week rounds of research. The collection…

Scholars have lamented that current methods of assessing student performance do not align with contemporary views of learning as situated within students, contexts, and time. Here, we introduce and describe one theoretical--psychometric paradigm--termed "dynamic measurement"--designed to provide a valid representation of the way students…

Answering the call for response process-based validation, this study shows how researchers can evaluate validity evidence of test scores based on the mental "processes" test-takers use, rather than based on correlations with other "outcome" measures. The proposed methods for process-based validation studies are demonstrated…

The recommender system has gained research attention from education research communities mainly due to two main reasons: increasing needs for personalized learning and big data availability in the education sector. This paper presents a hybrid user-collaborative, rule-based filtering recommendation system for education context. User profiles are…

The literature shows that unguided device use in the classroom decreases academic outcomes for a broad range of students. However, the literature does not address potential harms to graduate students. We investigate where highly motivated graduate students in a professional MPA program would be vulnerable to the same device distraction effects as…

Despite advances in evidence-based treatment for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), disparities in service access remain a serious concern. Current treatment models may not be feasible for families who live in remote geographical regions or have limited resources. To address this, studies have begun to explore parent-implemented interventions via an…

Recommendations from multiple professional organizations (e.g., American Psychological Association, Council for Exceptional Children, National Association of School Psychologists) suggest that collection of data on the social validity in practice and research is necessary. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the inclusion of…

Student agency is an important dimension of classroom literacy learning. Recent calls have emphasized the need to support student agency in literacy. Despite this interest, the field lacks a viable instrument that can be used to measure student agency with elementary students. The authors share the Student Agency Profile, a survey instrument that…

The aim of this study was to develop and validate the Childhood Nonverbal Communication Scale (CNCS) to assess nonverbal communication skills in children from birth to 18 months old. An extensive review of existing research provided evidence used to generate items representative of nonverbal communication behaviors. The final version of the CNCS…

Effective teachers are those who create a classroom climate which meets the needs of the students (Darling-Hammond, 2009; Hart & Hodsen, 2004). In an attempt to identify preservice teachers who can create this type of classroom, Missouri added a workplace inventory, the Missouri Educator Profile (MEP), to their required battery of teacher…

Community colleges began as a way to offer higher education to those that wanted it but could not leave home to further their degree. As they evolved, they began allowing students to be admitted with very little admission requirements. The lack of admission requirements led to students being admitted into community colleges that were not prepared…