All school leaders understand the importance of providing meaningful feedback. Done well, it supports pupil progress, building learning, addressing misunderstandings, and thereby closing the gap between where a pupil is and where the teacher wants them to be. However, not all feedback has positive effects. Done badly, feedback can even harm…

In this digital ITEMS module, Dr. Roy Levy describes Bayesian approaches to psychometric modeling. He discusses how Bayesian inference is a mechanism for reasoning in a probability-modeling framework and is well-suited to core problems in educational measurement: reasoning from student performances on an assessment to make inferences about their…

About 45 R packages to analyze data using item response theory (IRT) have been developed over the last decade. This article introduces these 45 R packages with their descriptions and features. It also describes possible advanced IRT models using R packages, as well as dichotomous and polytomous IRT models, and R packages that contain applications…

With today's technology, Extension professionals have a variety of tools available for program evaluation. This article describes an innovative platform called VoiceThread that has been used in many classrooms but also is useful for conducting virtual focus group research. I explain how this tool can be used to collect qualitative participant…

This article aims to provide a theoretical framework for computerized adaptive tests (CAT) and item response theory models for polytomous items. Besides that, it aims to introduce the simulation and live CAT software to the related researchers. Computerized adaptive test algorithm, assumptions of item response theory models, nominal response…

Written for students and researchers who wish to understand the conceptual and practical aspects of sampling, this book is designed to be accessible without requiring advanced statistical training. It covers a wide range of topics, from the basics of sampling to special topics such as sampling rare populations, sampling organizational populations,…

In order to progress as a field, school psychology research must be informed by effective measurement techniques. One approach to address the need for careful measurement is Rasch analysis. This technique can (a) facilitate the development of instruments that provide useful data, (b) provide data that can be used confidently for both descriptive…

A teacher's reactions to students' mathematical contributions have critical implications for shaping both teaching and learning. We present a framework for describing reacting moves that resulted from a comparative analysis between two existing frameworks; one developed by secondary teachers for parsing instructional practice and the other…

The Reduced Reparameterized Unified Model (Reduced RUM) is a diagnostic classification model for educational assessment that has received considerable attention among psychometricians. However, the computational options for researchers and practitioners who wish to use the Reduced RUM in their work, but do not feel comfortable writing their own…

This guidance report focuses on the teaching of mathematics to pupils in Key Stages 2 and 3. It is not intended to provide a comprehensive guide to mathematics teaching. We have made recommendations where there are research findings that schools can use to make a significant difference to pupils' learning, and have focused on the questions that…

As a basis for a systematic approach to investigating the effects of written corrective feedback, this article presents a typology of the different types available to teachers and researchers. The typology distinguishes two sets of options relating to (1) strategies for providing feedback (for example, direct, indirect, or metalinguistic feedback)…

After months of waiting, the grant reviews came back: "excellent," "excellent," and "fair." What?! How can this be? Why is the third review so out of line with the first two? On more than one occasion a principal investigator (PI) has been frustrated not only by a negative funding decision but more so by the accompanying reviewer evaluation forms…

In a recent paper, Hessen ("Psychometrika" 70(3):497-516, 2005) introduces the class of constant latent odds-ratios models as an extension of the Rasch model for which the sum score is still the sufficient statistic for ability. In this paper the relation between both the general and the general parametric constant latent odds-ratios model and the…

Children's theatre in the UK is thriving. Debates about why children should watch theatre and what educational, emotional and expressive benefits it can provide inform cultural policy on education. Children aged 4-11 are increasingly taken to watch tailored theatre performances, yet there has been virtually no reflective research on what theatre…

An ideal companion to "Academic Skills Problems, Fourth Edition", this indispensable workbook provides practice exercises and reproducible forms for use in direct assessment and intervention. Updated to reflect the changes in the fourth edition of the text, the workbook includes teacher and student interview forms, a complete guide to…