When tests consist of multiple-choice and constructed-response items, researchers are confronted with the question of which item response theory (IRT) model combination will appropriately represent the data collected from these mixed-format tests. This simulation study examined the performance of six model selection criteria, including the…

The purpose of the study was to investigate how grading in primary school affected students' achievement measured by grades in 7th, 8th and 9th Grade and educational attainment in upper secondary school (12th Grade), and how the effect varied as a function of students' cognitive ability, gender and socio-economic status. The data derived from the…

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (Department) created the grades 1-12 Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS) in response to district interest in the Early Warning Indicator Index (EWII) that the Department previously created for rising grade 9 students. Districts shared that the EWII data were helpful, but also…

The reporting methods used in large scale assessments such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) rely on a "latent regression model." The first component of the model consists of a "p"-scale IRT measurement model that defines the response probabilities on a set of cognitive items in "p" scales…

The Second International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM2009) was held at the University of Cordoba, Spain, on July 1-3, 2009. EDM brings together researchers from computer science, education, psychology, psychometrics, and statistics to analyze large data sets to answer educational research questions. The increase in instrumented…

Incidents of violence in recent years have intensified concern about student conduct in our nation's schools, and have heightened the desire, among educators and others, to find ways of ameliorating the problem. Social science can play a supportive role, by providing insight into the origins of deviance in schools. However, while previous…