Equating methods are designed to adjust between alternate versions of assessments targeting the same content at the same level, with the aim that scores from the different versions can be used interchangeably. The statistical processes used in equating have, however, been extended to statistically "link" assessments that differ, such as…

As noted by Fremer and Olson, analysis of answer changes is often used to investigate testing irregularities because the analysis is readily performed and has proven its value in practice. Researchers such as Belov, Sinharay and Johnson, van der Linden and Jeon, van der Linden and Lewis, and Wollack, Cohen, and Eckerly have suggested several…

Measures of socioeconomic status (SES) are widely used in educational research and policy applications in no small part because of a deeply rooted belief of the importance of SES. This paper argues that the usefulness of common SES measures can be undermined by (a) an atheoretical approach to conceptualizing SES and selecting measures, which…

In a pioneering research article, Wollack and colleagues suggested the "erasure detection index" (EDI) to detect test tampering. The EDI can be used with or without a continuity correction and is assumed to follow the standard normal distribution under the null hypothesis of no test tampering. When used without a continuity correction,…

An increasing concern of producers of educational assessments is fraudulent behavior during the assessment (van der Linden, 2009). Benefiting from item preknowledge (e.g., Eckerly, 2017; McLeod, Lewis, & Thissen, 2003) is one type of fraudulent behavior. This article suggests two new test statistics for detecting individuals who may have…

While there has been considerable research on doctoral examination there is little that examines the various roles of the oral component and what issues one might consider if introducing or revising that aspect of the thesis examination process. This matter is of particular importance in Australia where it is not usual to have an oral component as…

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,…

We study the properties of two specification tests that have been applied to a variety of estimators in the context of value-added measures (VAMs) of teacher and school quality: the Hausman test for choosing between student-level random and fixed effects, and a test for feedback (sometimes called a "falsification test"). We discuss…

When dealing with missing responses, two types of omissions can be discerned: items can be skipped or not reached by the test taker. When the occurrence of these omissions is related to the proficiency process the missingness is nonignorable. The purpose of this article is to present a tree-based IRT framework for modeling responses and omissions…

With an increase in the number of online tests, the number of interruptions during testing due to unexpected technical issues seems to be on the rise. For example, interruptions occurred during several recent state tests. When interruptions occur, it is important to determine the extent of their impact on the examinees' scores. Researchers such as…

With an increase in the number of online tests, interruptions during testing due to unexpected technical issues seem unavoidable. For example, interruptions occurred during several recent state tests. When interruptions occur, it is important to determine the extent of their impact on the examinees' scores. There is a lack of research on this…

Retrieving studied materials often enhances subsequent learning of new materials (Pastötter & Bäuml, 2014). However, retrieval has also been shown to impair new learning (Finn & Roediger, 2013). In this article, we attempted to determine when retrieval enhances and when it impairs new learning. We argue that testing impairs new learning…

Proper survey design is essential to obtain reliable, replicable data from research subjects. One threat to inferences drawn from surveys is anchoring-and-adjusting. Tversky and Kahnemann (1974) observed that participants' responses to questions depended systematically on irrelevant information they received prior to answering. It is important for…

The current research was an attempt to explore the washback impact of task-based instruction (TBI) on EFL Iranian learners' vocabulary development. To this end, conducting an Oxford Placement Test (OPT), 30 out of 72 EFL Iranian learners studying in an English language institute, were randomly selected. Then, they were assigned to experimental (N…

This study investigated the challenges Form III English language teachers face when implementing the revised integrated English language curriculum. A mixed-method descriptive design was used in Eldoret East SubCounty in Kenya. Data was collected through questionnaires, interviews and reflective conversations. Cluster, purposive and random…