Psychometrics is the field of designing tests and assessments to measure certain psychological concepts. It is chiefly concerned with two fundamental properties: reliability and validity. These properties are often influenced by confounding variables: other things that can influence performance but are not what you are trying to measure. Here, I…

The research and practice of social scientists who work in a myriad of different specialty areas involve developing and validating scores on instruments as well as evaluating the psychometric properties of existing instrumentation for use with research participants. In this article, the author introduces The MEASURE Approach to instrument…

With the advent of big data and advances in technology, psychological assessments have become increasingly sophisticated and complex. Nevertheless, traditional psychometric issues concerning the validity, reliability, and measurement bias of such assessments remain fundamental in determining whether score inferences of human attributes are…

The MABC-2 Checklist is a method designed preferentially for teachers and parents to evaluate how well a child performs movement skills within school, family and community settings. It serves as screening tool for the impact of motor skills deficits in children on activities of daily living, academic or school performance, leisure and play. This…

Resistant behaviors in multicultural courses are a common dilemma within counselor education. On the basis of psychological reactance theory (J. W. Brehm, 1966), the authors created a multicultural training reactance scale to measure the construct. Exploratory factor analysis and initial reliability and validity data are presented, followed by…

One of the areas subsumed under the data-based decision making and accountability practice identified in the National Association of School Psychologists' (NASP) "Model for Integrated School Psychological Services" is to collect information on psychological and educational variables to make decisions at a number of levels of service…

This methodological paper examines current conceptions of reliability in chemistry education research (CER) and provides recommendations for moving beyond the current reliance on reporting coefficient alpha (a) as reliability evidence without regard to its appropriateness for the research context. To help foster a better understanding of…

Dynamic Measurement Modeling (DMM) is a psychometric paradigm that uses longitudinal data to estimate students' capacity to learn over the course of an educational program (i.e., growth scores). Here, we provide justification for this approach in health professions education and demonstrate its proof of concept with three time-points of USMLE Step…

In this article I provide an overview of the methodological issues involved in measuring constructs relevant to character development and education. I begin with a nontechnical overview of the 3 fundamental psychometric properties of measurement: reliability, validity, and equivalence. Developing and evaluating measures to ensure evidence of all 3…

Assessment is fundamental to school psychology, but its purpose has shifted from making predictions about children to improving outcomes for children. This commentary on the special issue focuses on screening and progress-monitoring decisions that can be used to solve student problems. We outline several psychometric and practical issues that…

Programmatic assessment is both a philosophy and a method for assessment. It has been developed in medical education as a response to the limitation of the dominant testing or measurement approaches and to better align with changes in how medical competence was conceptualised. It is based on continual collection of assessment and feedback…

Over the last five years, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) is requiring states to provide more and better evidence supporting the quality and validity of their assessment and accountability systems. Notably, states are asked to explain more fully how the proposed design of their systems will provide accurate and reliable information that…

In Winter 2021-2022, the Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) assessments are administered in ELA and mathematics in Grades 3-8. In Spring 2021-2022, the NSCAS assessments are administered in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics in Grades 3-8 and in science in Grades 5 and 8. The purposes of the NSCAS assessments are to…

In Fall and Winter 2022-2023, the NSCAS assessments were administered in ELA and mathematics for grades 3-8. In Spring 2022-2023, the NSCAS assessments were administered in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics for grades 3-8 and in science for grades 5 and 8. The purposes of the NSCAS assessments are to measure and report Nebraska students'…

At least half of states administer or are developing kindergarten entry assessments. In fall 2017 the Illinois State Board of Education began requiring teachers to report data on every child's skills at kindergarten entry using the Kindergarten Individual Development Survey, which was adapted from a California kindergarten assessment. This study…