Four-parameter models have received increasing psychometric attention in recent years, as a reduced upper asymptote for item characteristic curves can be appealing for measurement applications such as adaptive testing and person-fit assessment. However, applications can be challenging due to the large number of parameters in the model. In this…

Survey respondents use different response styles when they use the categories of the Likert scale differently despite having the same true score on the construct of interest. For example, respondents may be more likely to use the extremes of the response scale independent of their true score. Research already shows that differing response styles…

Data from competence tests usually show a number of missing responses on test items due to both omitted and not-reached items. Different approaches for dealing with missing responses exist, and there are no clear guidelines on which of those to use. While classical approaches rely on an ignorable missing data mechanism, the most recently developed…

This paper focuses on one Grade 5 class (9 females; 9 males) who worked in student-pairs to view five digital learning object (DLO) lessons created by the authors and meant to introduce students to the nature of models, the particle nature of matter, and physical change. Specifically, the paper focuses on whether DLO design elements could assist…

Students perform better in school to the extent they are able to engage fully, cope adaptively, and bounce back from obstacles and setbacks in their academic work. These three processes, which studies suggest are positively inter-connected, may comprise a self-sustaining system that enables "motivational resilience." Using…

Response to Intervention (RtI) is a multi-tiered approach to provide evidence-based instruction to all students. Within a RtI paradigm, teachers and other professionals collaborate to design interventions for students who are at-risk for a learning disability. Despite the widespread use of RtI paradigms in educational settings, few studies have…

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediational effects of dysfunctional beliefs and difficulties in emotional regulation on children's perception of interparental conflict and subsequent internalizing and externalizing problems. The participants in this study were 335 fifth grade elementary school students in Korea. We hypothesized that…

Learning how to give effective feedback can be a difficult task for teacher leaders. This is especially true for what is called "hard feedback"--that is, feedback that challenges the teacher's practice and therefore may cause some level of professional discomfort. Educators at the University of Pittsburgh's Institute for Learning have…

The purpose of this study is to validate a test anxiety scale for Italian students. The scale is part of a questionnaire administered after the students' annual competence test by the National Institute for the Educational Evaluation of Instruction and Training (INVALSI). The aim of the scale is to explore the anxiety levels of Italian students…

Task difficulty is a critical issue affecting test developers. Controlling or balancing the item difficulty of an assessment improves its validity and discrimination. Test developers construct tests from the cognitive perspective, by making the test constructing process more scientific and efficient; thus, the scores obtained more precisely…

We update theories of teacher expectancy and cultural capital by linking them to discussions of technology. We argue for broadening the span of culturally important forms of capital by including the digital dimension of cultural capital. Based on data from the third-grade and fifth-grade waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal…

Although research has come to recognize the importance of studying classroom-based student-teacher discourse in science, the emphasis remains largely on teachers' abilities to ask questions and provide students with feedback, or on students' abilities to ask questions or engage in argumentative discourse. Consequently, little research has focused…

To determine whether formative writing assessments that are directly tied to everyday classroom teaching and learning enhance students' writing performance, we conducted a meta-analysis of true and quasi-experiments conducted with students in grades 1 to 8. We found that feedback to students about writing from adults, peers, self, and computers…

Educational effectiveness research often appeals to "value-added models (VAM)" to gauge the impact of schooling on student learning net of the effect of student background variables. A huge amount of cross-sectional studies do not, however, meet VAM's requirement for longitudinal data. "Contextualised attainment models (CAM)"…

Discrimination has traditionally been parameterized for items but not other empirical factors. Consequently, if person factors affect discrimination they cause misfit. However, by explicitly formulating the relationship between discrimination and the unit of a metric, it is possible to parameterize discrimination for person groups. This article…