"Item models" (LaDuca, Staples, Templeton, & Holzman, 1986) are classes from which it is possible to generate/produce items that are equivalent/isomorphic to other items from the same model (e.g., Bejar, 1996; Bejar, 2002). They have the potential to produce large number of high-quality items at reduced cost. This paper introduces…

The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Validity Study Service (VSS) was developed by the Educational Testing Service at the request of the GRE Board to help graduate departments investigate the validity of their student selection procedures. The GRE VSS reports are aimed primarily at graduate department chairpersons and faculty members--those who…

Monte Carlo simulation was used to investigate score bias and information characteristics of Owen's Bayesian adaptive testing strategy, and to examine possible causes of score bias. Factors investigated in three related studies included effects of item discrimination, effects of fixed vs. variable test length, and effects of an accurate prior…

The use of Bayesian decision theory to solve problems in test-based decision making is discussed. Four basic decision problems are distinguished: (1) selection; (2) mastery; (3) placement; and (4) classification, the situation where each treatment has its own criterion. Each type of decision can be identified as a specific configuration of one or…

Classical multiple regression was compared with Bayesian m-group regression, complete with cross-validation. The setting was a post-developmental studies situation in a comprehensive community college. A secondary purpose of the study was to incorporate an advisor prediction of grade point average (GPA) as input into both regression procedures.…

Recent work in factor analysis of categorical variables is reviewed, emphasizing a generalized least squares solution and a maximum likelihood approach. A common factor model for dichotomous items is introduced, and the estimation of factor loadings from matrices of tetracorrelations is discussed. (LMO)

Reviews educational applications of artificial intelligence and presents empirically-based design variables for developing a computer-based instruction management system. Taken from a programmatic research effort based on the Minnesota Adaptive Instructional System, variables include amount and sequence of instruction, display time, advisement,…

Bias, standard error, and reliability of five ability estimators were evaluated using Monte Carlo estimates of the unknown conditional means and variances of the estimators. Results indicate that estimates based on Bayesian modal, expected a posteriori, and weighted likelihood estimators were reasonably unbiased with relatively small standard…

Many educators and researchers are trying to define statistical literacy for the 21st century. Kimura, a Japanese science educator, has suggested that a key task of statistical literacy is the ability to extract qualitative information from quantitative information, and/or to create new information from qualitative and quantitative information.…

Judith Butler's philosophical writings on identity have provided inspiring, if occasionally "troubling", ways of rethinking gender. A key contribution has been the challenge to conventional social constructionist ideas and thinking on subjectivity. In developing a paradigm of performativity, Butler's work takes us beyond the territory of identity…

Several regression methods were examined within the framework of weighted structural regression (WSR), comparing their regression weight stability and score estimation accuracy in the presence of outlier contamination. The methods compared are: (1) ordinary least squares; (2) WSR ridge regression; (3) minimum risk regression; (4) minimum risk 2;…

The reliability of four branching algorithms commonly used in computer adaptive testing (CAT) was examined. These algorithms were: (1) maximum likelihood (MLE); (2) Bayesian; (3) modal Bayesian; and (4) crossover. Sixty-eight undergraduate college students were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions using the HyperCard-based CAT program,…

Classical statistical methods and the small enrollments in graduate departments have constrained the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Validity Study Service to providing only validities for single predictors. Estimates of the validity of two or more predictors, used jointly, are considered too unreliable because the corresponding prediction…

An empirical review of test items is described as an essential step in criterion-referenced test development. The concept of test items' instructional sensitivity is introduced, and research is briefly reviewed which describes four theoretical contexts in which instructional sensitivity indexes have been observed: criterion-referenced; classical…

This report examines how selection fairness is influenced by the characteristics of a selection instrument in terms of its distribution of item difficulties, level of item discrimination, degree of item bias, and testing strategy. Computer simulation was used in the administration of either a conventional or Bayesian adaptive ability test to a…