Missing data are common with large scale assessments (LSAs). A typical approach to handling missing data with LSAs is the use of listwise deletion, despite decades of research showing that approach can be a suboptimal strategy resulting in biased estimates. In order to help researchers account for missing data, we provide a tutorial using R and…

Descriptive analyses of socially important or theoretically interesting phenomena and trends are a vital component of research in the behavioral, social, economic, and health sciences. Such analyses yield reliable results when using representative individual participant data (IPD) from studies with complex survey designs, including educational…

The Organization of Economic, Cooperation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment (OECD's PISA) is explored as a site of science as an actor managing a social life. Its calculations form at the interstices of multiple historical lines as a comparative reason about nations, societies, and populations. That reason is…

IEA's International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) 2018 is designed to assess how well students are prepared for study, work, and life in a digital world. The study measures international differences in students' computer and information literacy (CIL): their ability to use computers to investigate, create, participate, and…

Item response models typically assume that the item characteristic (step) curves follow a logistic or normal cumulative distribution function, which are strictly monotone functions of person test ability. Such assumptions can be overly-restrictive for real item response data. We propose a simple and more flexible Bayesian nonparametric IRT model…

This article considers the role played by policy makers, government organisations, and research institutes (sometimes labelled "think tanks") in the analysis, use and reporting of PISA data for the purposes of policy advice and advocacy. It draws on the ideas of Rizvi and Lingard (Globalizing Education Policy, 2010), Bogdandy and…

Australia's overall performance in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) ranges from average to very good. However, three million adults, representing one-fifth of the working age population, have low literacy and/or numeracy skills. Building Skills for All in Australia describes the characteristics of the low-skilled and discusses the consequences…

The "PISA 2012 Technical Report" describes the methodology underlying the PISA 2012 survey, which tested 15-year-olds' competencies in mathematics, reading and science and, in some countries, problem solving and financial literacy. It examines the design and implementation of the project at a level of detail that allows researchers to…