The educational literature, the popular press, and educated laypeople have all echoed a conclusion from the book "Academically Adrift" by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa (which has now become received wisdom), namely, that 45% of college students showed no significant gains in critical thinking skills. Similar results were reported by…

States in the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Central region serve a largely rural population with many states enrolling fewer than 350,000 students. A common challenge identified among REL Central educators is identifying appropriate methods for analyzing data with small samples of students. In particular, members of the REL Central…

The current study aimed to assess the validity and test-retest reliability of a linear position transducer when compared to a force plate through a counter-movement jump in female participants. Twenty-seven female recreational athletes (19 ± 2 years) performed three counter-movement jumps simultaneously using the linear position transducer and…

The purpose of this study was to map the Chulalongkorn University Test of English Proficiency, or the CU-TEP, to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) by employing a standard setting methodology. Thirteen experts judged 120 items of the CU-TEP using the Yes/No Angoff technique. The experts decided whether or not a borderline student at…

Although social scientists devote considerable effort to mitigating measurement error during data collection, they often ignore the issue during data analysis. And although many statistical methods have been proposed for reducing measurement error-induced biases, few have been widely used because of implausible assumptions, high levels of model…

Statistical information pervades everyday life in the twenty-first century. Research shows, however, that the skills needed to be able to understand and critically evaluate statistical information must be specifically taught. In 2013, an externally assessed National Certificate in Educational Achievement standard in statistical literacy was…

The counter-movement jump is a consequence of maximal force, rate of force developed, and neuromuscular coordination. Thus, the counter-movement jump has been used to monitor various training adaptations. However, the smallest detectable difference of counter-movement jump metrics has yet to be established. The objective of the present study was…

An overview of standards related to demonstrating evidence regarding relationships with criteria as it pertains to instrument development was presented, along with heuristic examples. Additional measures and a comprehensive design are necessary to establish evidence related to the use and interpretation of test scores for the validation of a…

Undergraduate grade point average (GPA) is a commonly employed measure in educational research, serving as a criterion or as a predictor depending on the research question. Over the decades, researchers have used a variety of reliability coefficients to estimate the reliability of undergraduate GPA, which suggests that there has been no consensus…

In project-based learning (PBL) courses, which are common in design and technology education, instructors regard both the process and the final product to be important. However, conducting an accurate assessment for process feedback is not an easy task because instructors of PBL courses often have to make judgments based on a limited view of group…

Simulations were conducted to examine the effect of differential item functioning (DIF) on measurement consequences such as total scores, item response theory (IRT) ability estimates, and test reliability in terms of the ratio of true-score variance to observed-score variance and the standard error of estimation for the IRT ability parameter. The…

School climate is an important construct for guiding violence prevention efforts in U.S. schools, but there has been less consideration of this concept in its neighboring country Mexico, which has a higher prevalence of violence. The U.S. Department of Education outlined a three-domain conceptualization of school climate (i.e., safe and supportive…

In generalizability theory studies in large-scale testing contexts, sometimes a facet is very sparsely crossed with the object of measurement. For example, when assessments are scored by human raters, it may not be practical to have every rater score all students. Sometimes the scoring is systematically designed such that the raters are…

Traditional parallel analysis (T-PA) estimates the number of factors by sequentially comparing sample eigenvalues with eigenvalues for randomly generated data. Revised parallel analysis (R-PA) sequentially compares the "k"th eigenvalue for sample data to the "k"th eigenvalue for generated data sets, conditioned on"k"-…

Over the past decade, states and districts have updated teacher evaluation systems in response to federal incentives, such as waivers to No Child Left Behind and grants from Race to the Top. The use of multiple measures, however, raises an important issue for policymakers and practitioners: to what extent should different measures of a teacher's…