The multistage testing (MST) design has been gaining attention and popularity in educational assessments. For testing programs that have small test-taker samples, it is challenging to calibrate new items to replenish the item pool. In the current research, we used the item pools from an operational MST program to illustrate how research studies…

This study investigated the performance of four widely used data-collection designs in detecting test-mode effects (i.e., computer-based versus paper-based testing). The experimental conditions included four data-collection designs, two test-administration modes, and the availability of an anchor assessment. The test-level and item-level results…

TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) is a long-standing international assessment of mathematics and science at the fourth and eighth grades that has been collecting trend data every four years since 1995. About 70 countries use TIMSS trend data for monitoring the effectiveness of their education systems in a global…

Researchers are frequently confronted with unanswered questions or items on their questionnaires and tests, due to factors such as item difficulty, lack of testing time, or participant distraction. This paper first presents results from a poll confirming previous claims (Rietveld & van Hout, 2006; Schafer & Graham, 2002) that data…

'Everybody can quickly collect data using questionnaires'--this is an incorrect assumption among not only students but also veteran researchers. As a researcher and lecturer for research methods, I have more than once came across carelessly conducted studies using poorly constructed questionnaires meant to inform the implementation of…

The ED School Climate Surveys (EDSCLS) are a suite of survey instruments being developed for schools, school districts, and states by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Through the EDSCLS, schools nationwide will have access to survey instruments and a survey platform that will allow for the…

This study involved the development and validation of the Deaf Acculturation Scale (DAS), a new measure of cultural identity for Deaf and hard-of-hearing (hh) populations. Data for this study were collected online and involved a nation-wide sample of 3,070 deaf/hh individuals. Results indicated strong internal reliabilities for all the subscales,…

The study examined distance education as a tool for human resource development for junior secondary schools in Ebonyi State, Nigeria and it adopted a descriptive survey as the design. The population of the study consists of 2,410 secondary school teachers. Stratified simple random sampling technique was used to select 690 respondents. The…

The assessment of vocational workplace-based qualifications in England relies on human assessors (raters). These assessors observe naturally occurring, non-standardised evidence, unique to each learner and evaluate the learner as competent/not yet competent against content standards. Whilst these are considered difficult to measure, this study…

The uptake of technology and specifically, GeoGebra software, in teaching mathematics has had mixed success in spite of its documented benefits. This study investigated teachers' perspective towards training and eventual use of GeoGebra as a tool to enhance learning of mathematics. In this article we share findings from a larger study that was…

Fifty percent of college-bound students graduate from high school underprepared for mathematics at the post-secondary level. As a result, thirty-five percent of college students take developmental mathematics courses. What is even more shocking is the high failure rate (ranging from 35 to 42 percent) of students enrolled in developmental…

For educational achievement tests that employ multiple-choice (MC) items and aim to reliably classify students into performance categories, it is critical to design MC items that are capable of discriminating student performance according to the stated achievement levels. This is accomplished, in part, by clearly understanding how item design…

This paper describes the confirmatory factor analysis, validity, and reliability data collection stage of the development of a scale to measure mainstream teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for teaching ELL (English Language Learner) students. Data were collected from 708 K through 12 teachers and pre-service teachers with varying degrees of…

In the context of health sciences education, and education in general, the knowledge or ability of one or several subjects in a specific area is frequently compared using different forms of a test, or by means of different instruments aimed at measuring this knowledge or ability. In such cases, test scores must be equated so that they can be…

This article discusses the assumptions required by the item response theory (IRT) true-score equating method (with Stocking & Lord, 1983; scaling approach), which is commonly used in the nonequivalent groups with an anchor data-collection design. More precisely, this article investigates the assumptions made at each step by the IRT approach to…