This study utilized confirmatory factor analyses to examine the latent factor structure of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Fourth Edition, Italian adaptation (WISC-IV Italian) standardization sample. One through five, oblique first-order factor models and higher-order as well as bifactor models were examined and compared using CFA.…

High stakes test-based accountability systems primarily rely on aggregates and derivatives of scores from tests that were originally developed to measure individual student mastery of content specifications. Current validity models do not explicitly address this use of aggregate scores to measure the performance of teachers, administrators, and…

In an era focused on testing to ensure accountability, educators question the fairness and wisdom of the standardized tests as a means to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. The problem addressed by this study was the impact of stress, anxiety, and burnout on elementary teachers as a result of expectations in administering state…

This paper analyses the associations between computer use in schools and at home and test scores by using TIMSS data covering over 900,000 children in fourth grade. When controlling for school fixed effects, pupils who use computers at school, especially those who use them frequently are found to achieve less than students who never use computers.…

Drawing on Glenn Fulcher's extensive work in performance-based language assessment of speaking, this paper explores the assessment of L2 speaking ability in local language testing contexts. For that purpose, I review Fulcher's influential work that highlights the relationship between the speaking construct, the task, the performance, and the…

Prompted by Taiwanese university students' increasing demand for English proficiency assessment, the absence of a test designed specifically for this demographic subgroup, and the lack of a localized and freely-accessible proficiency measure, this project set out to develop and validate a computerized adaptive English proficiency testing (E-CAT)…

This paper evaluates the impact on dropout rates of a policy change in Mexico that eliminates grade retention for all first to third-grade students, causing a sharp reduction in repetition rates. I use a 12-year panel of schools to exploit such variation and estimate Difference-in-Difference models showing an average decrease in dropout rates of…

When there are no personal consequences associated with test performance for examinees, rapid guessing (RG) is a concern and can differ between subgroups. To date, the impact of differential RG on item-level measurement invariance has received minimal attention. To that end, a simulation study was conducted to examine the robustness of the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among phonological skills, reading fluency, and reading comprehension across reading modality (oral and silent) for a sample of students (N = 121) in grades 2-5 who have been diagnosed with dyslexia. Participants were administered text-level oral and silent reading fluency and comprehension…

Without a conceptual understanding of fraction magnitude, students have difficulties understanding more advanced mathematics in high school and beyond. The purpose of this study is to highlight 4th and 8th grade students' misconceptions in fraction magnitude using the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2015 data. The study is…

School-level inefficiencies and mismanagement can have serious repercussions for human resource development and labor market outcomes. This paper investigates the extent and consequences of existing technical inefficiency of schools with respect to their resource- and people-management aspects at a cross-country level across Organisation for…

In Switzerland, national educational goals were implemented in 2011. They cover various fields, including listening. The goals specify the competencies Swiss students should have at certain points in their school career. The pupils' achievement of these goals is tested regularly. This review of basic competencies takes place on tablet. In order to…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducted a special administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) long-term trend (LTT) reading and mathematics assessments for age 9 students in 2022 to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning. This brief document highlights the score declines…

The central purpose of this paper is to examine validity problems arising from the multiple-choice items and technical passages in the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-based Test (TOEFL iBT) reading section, primarily concentrating on construct-irrelevant variance (Messick, 1989). My personal TOEFL iBT experience, along with my…

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to overwhelm the functioning and outcomes of educational systems throughout the nation. The public education system is under particular scrutiny given that students, families, and educators are under considerable stress to maintain academic progress. Since the beginning of the crisis, school-systems…