Diagnostic classification models (DCMs) are psychometric models designed to classify examinees according to their proficiency or nonproficiency of specified latent characteristics. These models are well suited for providing diagnostic and actionable feedback to support intermediate and formative assessment efforts. Several DCMs have been developed…

Studies of data use illuminate ways in which education professionals have used test scores and other evidence relevant to students' learning--in action in their own contexts of work--to make decisions about their practice. These studies raise instructive challenges for a validity theory that focuses on intended interpretations and uses of test…

In this study, we present an approach to questionnaire design within educational research based on Guttman's mapping sentences and Many-Facet Rasch Measurement Theory. We designed a 54-item questionnaire using Guttman's mapping sentences to examine the grading practices of teachers. Each item in the questionnaire represented a unique student…

These analyses suggest that if a criterion-referenced test had a reliability (defined in terms of internal consistency) below 0.5, a simple a priori procedure would provide better estimates of students' universe scores than would individual observed scores. (Author/LMO)

Developments in cognitive and developmental psychology have broadened the inferences researchers want to make about students' learning and the nature and acquisition of knowledge. The principles of inference that led to standard test theory can support inference in the broader context of the cognitive revolution. (SLD)