The present study examines bias in parameter estimates and standard error in cross-classified random effect modeling (CCREM) caused by omitting the random interaction effects of the cross-classified factors, focusing on the effect of a sample size within cells and ratio of a small cell. A Monte Carlo simulation study was conducted to compare the…

This paper discusses a novel approach for developing more refined and accurate learner models from student data collected from Open Ended Learning Environments (OELEs). OELEs provide students choice in how they go about constructing solutions to problems, and students exhibit a variety of learning behaviors in such environments. Building accurate…

A latent multivariate regression model is developed that employs a generalized asymmetric Laplace (GAL) prior distribution for regression coefficients. The model is designed for high-dimensional applications where an approximate sparsity condition is satisfied, such that many regression coefficients are near zero after accounting for all the model…

Latent transition analysis (LTA) was initially developed to provide a means of measuring change in dynamic latent variables. In this article, we illustrate the use of a cognitive diagnostic model, the DINA model, as the measurement model in a LTA, thereby demonstrating a means of analyzing change in cognitive skills over time. An example is…

Intervention studies in school systems are sometimes aimed not at changing curriculum or classroom technique, but rather at changing the way that teachers, teaching coaches, and administrators in schools work with one another--in short, changing the professional social networks of educators. Current methods of social network analysis are…

Digital games offer an appealing environment for assessing student proficiencies, including skills and misconceptions in a diagnostic setting. This paper proposes a dynamic Bayesian network modeling approach for observations of student performance from an educational video game. A Bayesian approach to model construction, calibration, and use in…

This article investigates the use of teacher value-added estimates to assess the distribution of effective teaching across students of varying socioeconomic disadvantage in the presence of classroom composition effects. We examine, via simulations, how accurately commonly used teacher value-added estimators recover the rank correlation between…

Both testlet design and hierarchical latent traits are fairly common in educational and psychological measurements. This study aimed to develop a new class of higher order testlet response models that consider both local item dependence within testlets and a hierarchy of latent traits. Due to high dimensionality, the authors adopted the Bayesian…

Many latent traits in the human sciences have a hierarchical structure. This study aimed to develop a new class of higher order item response theory models for hierarchical latent traits that are flexible in accommodating both dichotomous and polytomous items, to estimate both item and person parameters jointly, to allow users to specify…

In survey research, sometimes the formation of groupings, or aggregations of cases on which to make an inference, are of importance. Of particular interest are the situations where the cases aggregated carry useful information that has been transferred from a sample employed in a previous study. For example, a school to be included in the sample…

This paper develops a model for longitudinal student achievement data designed to estimate heterogeneity in teacher effects across students of different achievement levels. The model specifies interactions between teacher effects and students' predicted scores on a test, estimating both average effects of individual teachers and interaction terms…