This study considers the importance of contextual effects on the quality of assessments on item bias and differential item functioning (DIF) in measurement. Often, in educational studies, students are clustered in teachers or schools, and the clusters could impact psychometric issues yet are largely ignored by traditional item analyses. A…

Differential Item Functioning (DIF) occurs when there is a greater probability of solving an item based on group membership after controlling for ability. Following administration of a 50-item scientific and quantitative reasoning exam to 286 two-year and 1174 four-year students, items were evaluated for DIF. Two-year students performed…

This article examines a wide range of parish school indicators that can be used to predict long-term viability. The study reported in this article explored the relationship between demographic variables, financial variables, and parish grade school closures in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. Specifically, this study investigated whether…

The authors propose a methodology based on the principal strata approach to causal inference for assessing the relative effectiveness of two degree programs with respect to the employment status of their graduates. An innovative use of nonparametric bounds in the principal strata framework is shown, examining the role of some assumptions in…

The testing of English language learners (ELLs) is, to a large extent, a random process because of poor implementation and factors that are uncertain or beyond control. Yet current testing practices and policies appear to be based on deterministic views of language and linguistic groups and erroneous assumptions about the capacity of assessment…

The Centre for the Economics of Education was asked to bring together a wide range of academic evidence (primarily England-based) to investigate the extent to which academic and non-academic childhood outcomes are complementary to each other, or are in some way traded-off against each other. The report also investigates the drivers of both…

We compared the structure of discussions in a middle school mathematics classroom before (Year 1) and after (Year 2) teacher participation in professional development activities aimed at enhancing students' participation and the co-construction of mathematical ideas. Changes in the role of teacher and student were accompanied by identifiable…

This study examined the joint impact of experiencing both interparental violence and child physical maltreatment on young adults' self-esteem. It also tested the hypothesis of parental and peer relationship qualities as mediators in the relationship between childhood histories of family violence and adult self-esteem. Data were collected from a…

In this issue's "Classroom Notes" section, the following papers are described: (1) "Sequences of Definite Integrals" by T. Dana-Picard; (2) "Structural Analysis of Pythagorean Monoids" by M.-Q Zhan and J. Tong; (3) "A Random Walk Phenomenon under an Interesting Stopping Rule" by S. Chakraborty; (4) "On Some Confidence Intervals for Estimating the…

Comprehension of moral reasoning is important both for successful moral education and for Kohlbergian claims that moral reasoning development is cognitive in nature. Because a psychometrically appropriate moral comprehension instrument does not appear to exist, the Moral Comprehension Questionnaire (MCQ) was constructed in Study 1 and displayed…

This article introduces prediction as a useful tool to promote mathematical reasoning. First, the article addresses prediction expectations in state standards and gives examples. It also provides a classroom example and activities to illustrate what prediction can look like and how it can serve as a building block for the development of students'…

Instructional strategies for teaching concepts have long been identified. Less commonly studied is a learner's level of confidence and certitude in their knowledge based upon exposure to these instructional treatments. This experimental research study used an instrument referred to as the Spatial Probability Measure (SPM) to solicit levels of…

In an Angoff standard setting procedure, judges estimate the probability that a hypothetical randomly selected minimally competent candidate will answer correctly each item in the test. In many cases, these item performance estimates are made twice, with information shared with the panelists between estimates. Especially for long tests, this…

Many statistical tests are designed to test the different assumptions of the Rasch model, but only few are directed at detecting multidimensionality. The Martin-Lof test is an attractive approach, the disadvantage being that its null distribution deviates strongly from the asymptotic chi-square distribution for most realistic sample sizes. A Monte…

The value of reciprocity in social exchange potentially comprises both instrumental value (the value of the actual benefits received from exchange) and communicative or symbolic value (the expressive and uncertainty reduction value conveyed by features of the act of reciprocity itself). While all forms of exchange provide instrumental value, we…