Multilevel modeling (MLM) is frequently used to detect group differences, such as an intervention effect in a pre-test--post-test cluster-randomized design. Group differences on the post-test scores are detected by controlling for pre-test scores as a proxy variable for unobserved factors that predict future attributes. The pre-test and post-test…

Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) increasingly are being used in the United States for inferences about student achievement growth and educator effectiveness. Emerging research has indicated that SGPs estimated from observed test scores have large measurement errors. As such, little is known about "true" SGPs, which are defined in terms…

This year signifies two key milestones in the GradNation campaign to raise high school graduation rates. First, the release of the 2015 federal graduation rate data marks five years since states began reporting the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR). The ACGR, for the first time, created a common formula for collecting graduation rate…

Objective: To use a model of health learning to examine the role of health-learning capacity and the effect of a school-based oral health education intervention (Winning Smiles) on the health outcome, child oral health-related quality of life (COHRQoL). Setting: Primary schools, high social deprivation, Ireland/Northern Ireland. Design: Cluster…

ACT reporting categories and ACT Readiness Ranges are new features added to the ACT score reports starting in fall 2016. For each reporting category, the number correct score, the maximum points possible, the percent correct, and the ACT Readiness Range, along with an indicator of whether the reporting category score falls within the Readiness…

A problem that is frequently encountered during the systematic review process is when studies that meet the inclusion criteria do not provide the appropriate numerical estimates to include in a meta-analysis. For dichotomous outcomes, a method has been suggested by Di Pietrantonj for reconstructing the 2 × 2 table when the Odds Ratio…

The objective of this article was to find an optimal decision rule for identifying polytomous items with large or moderate amounts of differential functioning. The effectiveness of combining statistical tests with effect size measures was assessed using logistic discriminant function analysis and two effect size measures: R[superscript 2] and…

This article used the Wald test to evaluate the item-level fit of a saturated cognitive diagnosis model (CDM) relative to the fits of the reduced models it subsumes. A simulation study was carried out to examine the Type I error and power of the Wald test in the context of the G-DINA model. Results show that when the sample size is small and a…

In a typical differential item functioning (DIF) analysis, a significance test is conducted for each item. As a test consists of multiple items, such multiple testing may increase the possibility of making a Type I error at least once. The goal of this study was to investigate how to control a Type I error rate and power using adjustment…

This study examined criterion-related validity and clinimetric properties of the pediatric balance scale ("PBS") in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Forty-five children with CP (age range: 19-77 months) and their parents participated in this study. At baseline and at follow up, Pearson correlation coefficients were used to determine…

This simulation study investigated use of the multilevel structural equation model (MLSEM) for handling measurement error in both mediator and outcome variables ("M" and "Y") in an upper level multilevel mediation model. Mediation and outcome variable indicators were generated with measurement error. Parameter and standard…

Most dichotomous item response models share the assumption of latent monotonicity, which states that the probability of a positive response to an item is a nondecreasing function of a latent variable intended to be measured. Latent monotonicity cannot be evaluated directly, but it implies manifest monotonicity across a variety of observed scores,…

Successful school leadership is highly contextually dependent. However, few studies focused on the comparisons of school leadership across different countries. Even among the existing studies, comparisons tend to be conducted with the assumption that the underlying factorial structure of the construct is the same. In this study, school principal's…

The present study examined the psychometric equivalence of administering a computer-based version of the Gifted Rating Scale (GRS) compared with the traditional paper-and-pencil GRS-School Form (GRS-S). The GRS-S is a teacher-completed rating scale used in gifted assessment. The GRS-Electronic Form provides an alternative method of administering…

In an earlier paper, we presented methods for estimating achievement gaps when test scores are coarsened into a small number of ordered categories, preventing fine-grained distinctions between individual scores. We demonstrated that gaps can nonetheless be estimated with minimal bias across a broad range of simulated and real coarsened data…