The finite population correction (FPC) factor is often used to adjust variance estimators for survey data sampled from a finite population without replacement. As a replicated resampling approach, the jackknife approach is usually implemented without the FPC factor incorporated in its variance estimates. A paradigm is proposed to compare the…

In investigations of unusual testing behavior, a common question is whether a specific pattern of responses occurs unusually often within a group of examinees. In many current tests, modern communication techniques can permit quite large numbers of examinees to share keys, or common response patterns, to the entire test. To address this issue,…

A general program for item-response analysis is described that uses the stabilized Newton-Raphson algorithm. This program is written to be compliant with Fortran 2003 standards and is sufficiently general to handle independent variables, multidimensional ability parameters, and matrix sampling. The ability variables may be either polytomous or…

In operational equating, frequency estimation (FE) equipercentile equating is often excluded from consideration when the old and new groups have a large ability difference. This convention may, in some instances, cause the exclusion of one competitive equating method from the set of methods under consideration. In this report, we study the…

Outliers in assessments are often treated as a nuisance for data analysis; however, they can also assist in quality assurance. Their frequency can suggest problems with form codes, scanning accuracy, ability of examinees to enter responses as they intend, or exposure of items.

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…

Xu and von Davier (2006) demonstrated the feasibility of using the general diagnostic model (GDM) to analyze National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) proficiency data. Their work showed that the GDM analysis not only led to conclusions for gender and race groups similar to those published in the NAEP Report Card, but also allowed…

There are test-equating situations in which it may be appropriate to fit a loglinear or other type of probability model to the joint distribution of a total score on a test and a score on part of that test. For anchor test designs, this situation arises for internal anchor tests, which are embedded within the total test. Similarly, a part-whole…

Confidence intervals are an important tool to indicate uncertainty of estimates and to give an idea of probable values of an estimate if a different sample from the population was drawn or a different sample of measures was used. Standard symmetric confidence intervals for proportion estimates based on a normal approximation can yield bounds…

Bayesian network models offer a large degree of flexibility for modeling dependence among observables (item outcome variables) from the same task that may be dependent. This paper explores four design patterns for modeling locally dependent observations from the same task: (1) No context--Ignore dependence among observables; (2) Compensatory…

This study examined how the practice of prepublishing prompts used on the writing section of the Graduate Record Examinations® (GRE®) General Test impacts test-preparation behavior, test performance, test validity, and examinee perceptions of the value of prompt prepublication. Researchers imposed modest experimental control over how participants…

Weighting and variance estimation are two statistical issues involved in survey data analysis for large-scale assessment programs such as the Higher Education Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy Assessment. Because survey data are always acquired by probability sampling, to draw unbiased or almost unbiased inferences for the…

This study compared essay scores from paper-based and computer-based versions of a writing test for prospective teachers. Scores for essays in the paper-based version averaged nearly half a standard deviation higher than those in the computer-based version, after applying a statistical control for demographic differences between the groups of…

This paper describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an automated system for predicting the acceptability status of candidate reading-comprehension stimuli extracted from a database of journal and magazine articles. The system uses a combination of classification and regression techniques to predict the probability that a given…

This study examined scores from 133,906 operationally scored Test of English as a Foreign Language™ (TOEFL®) essays to determine whether the choice of composition medium has any impact on score quality for subgroups of test-takers. Results of analyses demonstrate that (a) scores assigned to word-processed essays are slightly more reliable than…