Large scale international assessments depend on invariance of measurement across countries. An important consideration when observing cross-national differential item functioning (DIF) is whether the DIF actually reflects a source of bias, or might instead be a methodological artifact reflecting item response theory (IRT) model misspecification.…

Modelling ability is one of the essential elements of the latest educational reforms, and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a curriculum-based assessment which allows educational systems worldwide to inspect the curricular influences. The aims of this study were to examine the role of modelling ability in the…

Introduction: Increasing evidence has shown that student mobility is negatively correlated with individual students' and schools' academic performance (Hanushek, Kain, & Rivkin, 2004; Lara, Mizala, & Repetto, 2011; Sun & Pan, 2014). However, the negative impact may be due to the switching behavior or it could be only a side effect of…

Providing scientific explanations for natural phenomena is a fundamental aim of science; therefore, scientific explanation has been selected as one of the key practices in science education policy documents around the world. To further elaborate on existing educational frameworks of scientific explanation in K-12, we propose a learning progression…

Developing student self-efficacy and conceptualizing the importance of core ideas are seen as important learning areas in science education. Such core ideas can be elucidated with respect to the science discipline as well as interdisciplinary learning. Schools can be expected to promote high levels of students' self-efficacy in acquiring major…

The purpose of this research is to investigate the attitudes of elementary education students towards the use of Smart Board (SB) in lessons. The study is based on the associational survey model from quantitative research methods. The study was conducted on students attending at 4th to 8th grades of three schools, both primary and secondary…

Every year millions of children suffer the loss of a parent due to incarceration. This exploratory study investigated an eight-session group intervention to support this vulnerable population. Within the group, attendance, academic achievement, self-esteem, and delinquent and aggressive behavior were explored. This article will discuss the results…

This article exemplifies how assessment design might be grounded in theory, thereby helping to strengthen validity claims. Spanning work across multiple related projects, the article first briefly summarizes an assessment system model for the elementary and secondary levels. Next the article describes how cognitive-domain theory and principles are…

This study seeks to obtain argumentation models, which represent argumentative processes and an assessment structure in secondary school debatable issues in the social sciences. The argumentation model was developed based on mixed methods, a combination of both theory-driven and data-driven methods. The coding system provided a combing point by…

The link between reading and mathematics achievement is well known, and an important question is whether readability factors in mathematics problems are differentially impacting student groups. Using 20 years of data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, we examine how…

The authors develop model analyses based on a U.S. Department of Education guide to illustrate procedures a State could use to compare and contrast school-level overall and English Learner accountability determinations for proficiency in reading/language arts under the options allowed by the Every Student Succeeds Act. As a technical reference,…

Students' attitude towards science (SAS) is often a subject of investigation in science education research. Survey of rating scale is commonly used in the study of SAS. The present study illustrates how Rasch analysis can be used to provide psychometric information of SAS rating scales. The analyses were conducted on a 20-item SAS scale used in an…

Using Hofstede's culture dimensions and World Values Survey (WVS) dimensions, the study uses a series of multiple regressions to explore the relationship among national culture, creativity as measured by patents, economic productivity as measured by gross domestic product per capita, and student achievement as measured by Trends in International…

The authors aimed to investigate the variability in science achievement as a function of student-, school- and country-level factors. Achievement scores of 134,123 eighth-grade students from 4,511 schools of 29 countries who participated in the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study were analyzed. Multilevel modeling results…

This volume offers insights from modeling relations between teacher quality, instructional quality, and student outcomes in mathematics across countries. The relations explored take the educational context, such as school climate, into account. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's Trends in Mathematics and…