Background: After elementary school, students in Germany are separated into different school tracks (i.e., school types) with the aim of creating homogeneous student groups in secondary school. Consequently, the development of students' reading achievement diverges across school types. Findings on this achievement gap have been criticized as…

This study evaluated the psychometric quality of a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) version of the general cognitive ability test (GCAT), using a simulation study protocol put forth by Han, K. T. (2018a). For the needs of the analysis, three different sets of items were generated, providing an item pool of 165 items. Before evaluating the…

Linking score scales across different tests is considered speculative and fraught, even at the aggregate level. We introduce and illustrate validation methods for aggregate linkages, using the challenge of linking U.S. school district average test scores across states as a motivating example. We show that aggregate linkages can be validated both…

Purpose: A myriad features can impact the nature, frequency, and length of adult-child interactions important for language learning. Empirical investigations of language learning opportunities for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) provide limited generalizable insight, with inferences more constrained to the sample than is often…

Across the evidence-based policy and practice (EBPP) community, including education, randomised controlled trials (RCTS) rank as the most "rigorous" evidence for causal conclusions. This paper argues that that is misleading. Only narrow conclusions about study populations can be warranted with the kind of "rigour" that RCTs…

This work proposes simple experiments to introduce some fundamental concepts of the measurement area. It associates theory and practice through a strategy where the students create a real temperature data set with an Arduino board and three LM35DZ sensors and later use mathematical software to identify theoretical concepts as measurement accuracy…

The article presents an analysis of the factorial structure and measurement invariance of the Innovative Behavior Questionnaire, developed by Scott and Bruce. Although the instrument is widely used to capture individuals' innovative behavior, very little evidence concerning its psychometric properties is available. A time-lagged study among 382…

The statistical concept of sampling is often given little direct attention, typically reduced to the mantra "take a random sample". This low resource and adaptable activity demonstrates sampling and explores issues that arise due to biased sampling.

In experimental evaluations of policy interventions, the so-called Bloom adjustment is commonly used to estimate the impact of the treatment on the treated. It does so by rescaling the estimated impact of the intention to treat--that is, the overall treatment-control group difference in outcomes for the entire experimental sample--by the…

In psychological and survey research, the prevalence and serious consequences of careless responses from unmotivated participants are well known. In this study, we propose to iteratively detect careless responders and cleanse the data by removing their responses. The careless responders are detected using person-fit statistics. In two simulation…

This study investigated (1) the extent to which presentations of measurement error in score reports influence teachers' decisions and (2) teachers' preferences in relation to these presentations. Three presentation formats of measurement error (blur, colour value and error bar) were compared to a presentation format that omitted measurement error.…

Identifying mediators in variable chains as part of a causal mediation analysis can shed light on issues of causation, assessment, and intervention. However, coefficients and effect sizes in a causal mediation analysis are nearly always small. This can lead those less familiar with the approach to reject the results of causal mediation analysis.…

The objectives were to examine the factorial structure of the Academic Procrastination Scale-Short Form (APS-S) and the measurement invariance across gender and educational levels, to determine possible differences in procrastination across gender, educational levels, and grades. The sample was formed of 1486 Spanish primary and secondary school…

When there are no personal consequences associated with test performance for examinees, rapid guessing (RG) is a concern and can differ between subgroups. To date, the impact of differential RG on item-level measurement invariance has received minimal attention. To that end, a simulation study was conducted to examine the robustness of the…

The OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has become one of the key studies for evidence-based education policymaking across the globe. PISA has however received a lot of methodological criticism, including how the test scores are created. The aim of this paper is to investigate the so-called 'conditioning model', where…