At the highest level, this dissertation is a case study on how bias can become encoded into the tools used to measure a construct and into the very definition of the construct itself. In this case, the construct is spatial ability. This dissertation focuses on the validity and accuracy of spatial tests and illuminates gender bias that is…

The continuous disparities in reading test scores between Black and White students remain a substantial problem in education. This study examines the historical disparity by investigating how the Georgia Milestones English Language Arts (ELA) End of Grade (EOG) Assessment incorporates cultural relevance. Employing the theoretical frameworks of…

The landscape of undergraduate biology education has been shaped by decades of reform efforts calling for instruction to integrate core concepts and scientific skills as a means of helping students become proficient in the discipline. Assessments can be used to make inferences about how these reform efforts have translated into changes in…

This study examines and utilizes Critical Race Theory to understand how pedagogical training fails to train educators in recognizing and countering racism in standardized testing and General Equivalency Diploma (GED) preparatory courses. Black students continue to have the lowest pass rates in GED test performance based on a study of race and…

As the population of the United States becomes increasingly diverse, multicultural competency in school psychological practice grows in salience and importance. Based on previous work done by Malone et al. (2015), the expanded School Psychology Multicultural Competence Scale (SPMCS-E) is intended to give researchers, practitioners, trainers, and…

This research examined the Chinese National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) in mathematics before and after the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, specifically covering the periods 1952-1965 and 1977-1984. The central focus was on the organization, structure, and content of the examinations, as well as their influence on and interaction…

There is an increased demand on nursing faculty to provide quality teaching and assessment. Nursing faculty are required to ensure accurate assessment of learning through testing and outcome measurement that are critical elements of the evaluation process. Likewise, nursing faculty should implement a logical evaluation system. However, the…

This three-paper dissertation explores item cluster-based assessments, first in general as it relates to modeling, and then, specific issues surrounding a particular item cluster-based assessment designed. There should be a reasonable analogy between the structure of a psychometric model and the cognitive theory that the assessment is based upon.…

This is a multi-method study to develop and validate an instrument to measure teachers' self-efficacy for teaching students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in inclusive early childhood classrooms, "Teacher Self-efficacy for Teaching Students with ASD Inclusive Classrooms Scale": TSE-ASDI. I conducted literature and expert reviews as…

When test forms that have equal total test difficulty and number of items vary in difficulty and length within sub-content areas, an examinee's estimated score may vary across equivalent forms, depending on how well his or her true ability in each sub-content area aligns with the difficulty of items and number of items within these areas.…

This study examines teacher and student talk about tests and test data in a bilingual charter elementary school over two academic years. Considering tests as conveying information, the analysis proposes categories to distinguish different kinds and uses of test information. Kinds of test information include that conveyed by the existence of the…

This study examined the relationship between high school exit exams and mathematical proficiency. With the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act requiring all students to be proficient in mathematics by 2014, it is imperative that high-stakes assessments accurately evaluate all aspects of student achievement, appropriately set the yardstick by which…

Previous systematic reviews indicate a lack of reporting of reliability and validity evidence in subsets of the medical education literature. Psychology and general education reviews of factor analysis also indicate gaps between current and best practices; yet, a comprehensive review of exploratory factor analysis in instrument development across…

Although classroom assessment is one of the most frequent practices carried out by teachers in all educational programs, limited research has been conducted to investigate the dependability and validity of criterion-referenced tests (CRTs). The main purpose of this study is to develop a criterion-referenced test for first-year Japanese university…

Purpose: The purpose of this replication study was to determine the degree to which teachers and administrators in selected low-achieving Title I elementary schools: 1. Report that they teach the following test-taking skills to prepare their students to take the CST: establishing an appropriate student attitude toward testing, familiarity with the…