During the development of large-scale school achievement tests, panels of independent subject-matter experts use systematic judgmental methods to rate the correspondence between a given test's items and performance objective statements. The individual experts' ratings may then be used to compute summary indices to quantify the match between a…

Interest in the study of gene-environment interaction has recently grown due to the sudden availability of molecular genetic data--in particular, polygenic scores--in many long-running longitudinal studies. Identifying and estimating statistical interactions comes with several analytic and inferential challenges; these challenges are heightened…

Despite several psychometric advantages over the 50-item Autism Spectrum Quotient, an instrument used to measure autistic traits, the abridged AQ-28 and its cross-cultural validity have not been examined as extensively. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the factor structure and measurement invariance of the AQ-28 in 818 Dutch (M[subscript…

Mediation analysis plays an important role in understanding causal processes in social and behavioral sciences. While path analysis with composite scores was criticized to yield biased parameter estimates when variables contain measurement errors, recent literature has pointed out that the population values of parameters of latent-variable models…

This article describes an extension to the use of heteroskedastic ordered probit (HETOP) models to estimate latent distributional parameters from grouped, ordered-categorical data by pooling across multiple waves of data. We illustrate the method with aggregate proficiency data reporting the number of students in schools or districts scoring in…

Writing assessments often consist of students responding to multiple prompts, which are judged by more than one rater. To establish the reliability of these assessments, there exist different methods to disentangle variation due to prompts and raters, including classical test theory, Many Facet Rasch Measurement (MFRM), and Generalizability Theory…

Scoring constructed-response items can be highly difficult, time-consuming, and costly in practice. Improvements in computer technology have enabled automated scoring of constructed-response items. However, the application of automated scoring without an investigation of test equating can lead to serious problems. The goal of this study was to…

There is increasing concern among researchers about collecting data on sex and gender variables, yet many researchers are unsure of how to deal meaningfully with these variables. Drawing on literature that tests the psychometric properties of sex and gender demographic questions, we present considerations for collecting sex and gender demographic…

Multilevel structural equation (MSEM) models allow researchers to model latent factor structures at multiple levels simultaneously by decomposing within- and between-group variation. Yet the extent to which the sampling ratio (i.e., proportion of cases sampled from each group) influences the results of MSEM models remains unknown. This paper…

Background: Researchers are often interested in testing the effectiveness of an intervention on multiple outcomes, for multiple subgroups, at multiple points in time, or across multiple treatment groups. The resulting multiplicity of statistical hypothesis tests can lead to spurious findings of effects. Multiple testing procedures (MTPs)…

The present study aimed to demonstrate how the mixed methods approach was used to develop and validate a quantitative instrument for measuring forms of capital (a "Capital Scale") among K-12 teachers, using the two-phase approach of an exploratory sequential model. The study includes: (1) a qualitative phase based on 16 semi-structured…

Likert-type item is the most popular response format for collecting data in social, educational, and psychological studies through scales or questionnaires. However, there is no consensus on whether parametric or non-parametric tests should be preferred when analyzing Likert-type data. This study examined the statistical power of parametric and…

Factor score regression (FSR) is widely used as a convenient alternative to traditional structural equation modeling (SEM) for assessing structural relations between latent variables. But when latent variables are simply replaced by factor scores, biases in the structural parameter estimates often have to be corrected, due to the measurement error…

Background: Speech-language pathologists often multitask in order to be efficient with their commonly large caseloads. In stuttering assessment, multitasking often involves collecting multiple measures simultaneously. Aims: The present study sought to determine reliability when collecting multiple measures simultaneously versus individually.…

Open-ended verbal creativity assessments are commonly administered in psychological research and in educational practice to elementary-aged children. Children's responses are then typically rated by teams of judges who are trained to identify original ideas, hopefully with a degree of inter-rater agreement. Even in cases where the judges are…