Ethnogeology is the scientific study of human relationships with the Earth as a system, typically conducted within the context of a specific culture. Indigenous or historically resident people may perceive local places differently from outside observers trained in the Western tradition. Ethnogeologic knowledge includes traditional indigenous…

Response-time models are of increasing interest in educational and psychological testing. This paper focuses on the lognormal model for response times (van der Linden, 2006), which is one of the most popular response-time models, and suggests a simple person-fit statistic for the model. The distribution of the statistic under the null hypothesis…

This study explored the college choice decisions for students who undermatched to a community college during their college choice process. Specifically, this project utilized a qualitative multi-site case study design to understand the college choice process for students who were admitted into a four-year institution but chose to enroll in a…

This dissertation uncovers the initial history of North Carolina's Industrial Education Centers, an essential part of the history of vocational education and community colleges in the State of North Carolina. These centers opened in the late 1950s through the early 1960s and served as part of the predecessors for the future community college…

Personalized learning environments requiring the elicitation of a student's knowledge state have inspired researchers to propose distinct models to understand that knowledge state. Recently, the spotlight has shone on comparisons between traditional, interpretable models such as Bayesian Knowledge Tracing (BKT) and complex, opaque neural network…

Testing item-level fit is important in scale development to guide item revision/deletion. Many item-level fit indices have been proposed in literature, yet none of them were directly applicable to an important family of models, namely, the higher order item response theory (HO-IRT) models. In this study, chi-square-based fit indices (i.e., Yen's…

In Huggins-Manley & Han (2017), it was shown that WLSMV global model fit indices used in structural equating modeling practice are sensitive to person parameter estimate RMSE and item difficulty parameter estimate RMSE that results from local dependence in 2-PL IRT models, particularly when conditioning on number of test items and sample size.…

Evidence of student growth is a primary outcome of interest for educational accountability systems. When three or more years of student test data are available, questions around how students grow and what their predicted growth is can be answered. Given that test scores contain measurement error, this error should be considered in growth and…

Bilingual children demonstrate varying levels of proficiency in each of the two languages to which they are exposed. Even though it is widely acknowledged that bilingual children are not a homogenous group, existing studies on dual-language profiles in bilingual children have focused on expressive language profiles. In this study, we used the…

Asian American college student success has traditionally been framed from a perspective of successful academic performance and degree completion that perpetuates the model minority stereotype and overlooks the actual challenges they may experience in college. Many bicultural Asian American students manage the individual and family acculturation…

The use of learner modelling approaches is critical for providing adaptive support in educational computer games, with predictive learner modelling being among the key approaches. While adaptive supports have been shown to improve the effectiveness of educational games, improperly customized support can have negative effects on learning outcomes.…

Health translation has gotten considerable attention recently because language diversity in multilingual societies often leads to language barriers. The present study evaluates the linguistic comprehensibility of translations in the "Health Translations Website" from the Victorian Government of Australia using the patient-oriented and…

Purpose: Prior research shows wide variation in student learning across contexts during the COVID-19 pandemic, but less is known about "why" such variation occurred or how particular response approaches may help districts navigate future crises. Research methods: Drawing on crisis leadership and organizational theory, we conducted a…

Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are important skills in English language learning. However, some students are not successful in learning English due to several factors. The model for improving the English learning skills of students is essential. However, except for the HyFlex learning model, no suitable model for learners has been found…

State summative assessments play an important role in measuring student learning and guiding educational improvement efforts, despite their limitations. But there is growing momentum in individual states and nationally to rethink these assessments with an eye toward reducing time spent on testing and increasing the tests' instructional relevance.…