The present study explored the development and initial validation of a measure of doctoral student self-efficacy for students in Health Profession Training (HPT) programs. There is a gap in existing scales that measure the full spectrum of tasks that contribute to doctoral self-efficacy. The scales that do exist focus on broad self-efficacy (Chen…

While multimodality and multiliteracies has been a concept for 25 years (Kalantzis & Cope, 2023; The New London Group, 1996), research on and application of the concept within text complexity measures has been limited. Attempts to assess multiliteracies and multimodality (Jacobs, 2013; Schmerbeck & Lucht, 2017; Wyatt-Smith & Kimber,…

Adolescent mental health is a growing concern in the United States. Children who experience mental health issues struggle in the school environment if their needs are not met. Teachers play a critical role in the classroom when identifying students who struggle with mental health issues. The purposes of this convergent, parallel mixed-methods…

The purpose of this study was to further investigate the relationship between the instruments identified by Kose and developed by Maras et al. (2013), Astramovich (2016), and Dimmitt et al. (2007) to provide validation to the proposed taxonomy of program evaluation competencies for school counselors. Theoretically, these instruments should be…

School systems across the United States increasingly use performance-based assessments (PBAs) as alternatives to traditional standardized tests, like the SAT, to make post-secondary and workforce readiness (PWR) determinations. However, very little research has been conducted to validate such alternative assessments as valid indicators of a…

Computer-based technological tools can be an efficient and effective way to enhance mathematics classroom activities like formative assessment. Whilst there are a number of theoretical frameworks and standards to help pre- and in-service teachers understand the individual complexities of mathematics pedagogy, technology integration, and formative…

This dissertation presents an innovative approach to examining the keying method, wording method, and construct validity on psychometric instruments. By employing a mixed methods explanatory sequential design, the effects of keying and wording in two psychometric assessments were examined and validated. Those two self-report psychometric…

Nursing education programs are faced with urgent demands to transition to competency-based education (CBE) to address the limitations of the nursing workforce. The AACN (2021) has developed the Essentials, or the core competencies for graduating entry- and advanced-level nurses to inform CBE. A concept analysis of Foundational Competence was…

A major challenge to promoting effective early science and engineering education is the lack of reliable and validated assessments that align with current educational guidelines for science and engineering. Existing early science and engineering assessments either cover a narrow range of concepts and practices and/or are not designed in a way to…

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a key covariate in analyses by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). In its technical documentation, PISA offers evidence for the Economic, Social, and Cultural Status instrument (ESCS) as a valid measure of SES. This dissertation, however, offers both conceptual and empirical arguments that ESCS…

Many employers state that they expect college graduates to have "soft" or domain-general skills like critical thinking, and universities claim to teach these skills. To prove colleges are delivering on their promise--and to demonstrate that employers are picking the best personnel fairly--colleges, students, and employers need a valid…

The purpose of this multiple-paper dissertation is to design a digital game and stealth assessments within the game to assess young second language learners' Chinese reading proficiency. In Chapter 2 (Paper 1), I describe the game designed for this dissertation and how it was implemented in a dual language immersion classroom. This study found…

The three articles that comprise this dissertation use a variety of methods associated with the field of educational measurement to address distinct research questions related to psychometric tools and their implications for practice in education. All three articles involve methods related to instrument design, while drawing on different…

High stakes test-based accountability systems primarily rely on aggregates and derivatives of scores from tests that were originally developed to measure individual student mastery of content specifications. Current validity models do not explicitly address this use of aggregate scores to measure the performance of teachers, administrators, and…

Grades serve as one of the primary indicators of student learning, directing subsequent actions for students, instructors, and administrators, alike. Therefore, grade validity--that is, the extent to which grades communicate a meaningful and credible representation of what they purport to measure--is of utmost importance. However, a grade cannot…