The purpose of this study was to investigate a new way of evaluating interrater reliability that can allow one to determine if two raters differ with respect to their rating on a polytomous rating scale or constructed response item. Specifically, differential item functioning (DIF) analyses were used to assess interrater reliability and compared…

Evidence-based research is becoming increasingly important in educational research. Calculation and test methods available in statistical software packages such as SPSS and STATA are widely used. To evaluate teaching innovations such as blended learning against classical classroom settings, for example, previous studies have mainly applied…

Background: The association between problem behavior in children and adolescents and creativity has hardly been examined. The few studies available report contradictory findings. There is some empirical evidence that a low socioeconomic status coincides with lower creativity test achievements. Objective: The current study addresses the question…

The Michelson interferometer is one of the key experiments in modern physics when it comes to the topic of interference (Box 1). Experiments using interferometry have a high historic relevance as well as uses in current areas of research (quantum erasers, gravitational wave detection) and are used in higher education. Because of the high cost of…

This study compares two missing data procedures in the context of ordinal factor analysis models: pairwise deletion (PD; the default setting in Mplus) and multiple imputation (MI). We examine which procedure demonstrates parameter estimates and model fit indices closer to those of complete data. The performance of PD and MI are compared under a…

Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient between item g and test score X, known as item-test or item-total correlation ("Rit"), and item-rest correlation ("Rir") are two of the most used classical estimators for item discrimination power (IDP). Both "Rit" and "Rir" underestimate IDP caused by the…

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Fifth Edition (WISC-V; Wechsler, 2014) provides a general intelligence score, representing "g," and five index scores, reflecting underlying broad factors. Within person differences between the overall performance across subtests and index scores, denoted as index difference scores, are often…

Debates about how best to support students' transition from school to university have re-emerged periodically since at least the 1970s. This paper focuses upon one aspect of this transition: how to develop the quantitative skills students acquire at school throughout the first year of their degree. We report on an attempt to inject pedagogic…

In this study, Kernel test equating methods were compared under NEAT and NEC designs. In NEAT design, Kernel post-stratification and chain equating methods taking into account optimal and large bandwidths were compared. In the NEC design, gender and/or computer/tablet use was considered as a covariate, and Kernel test equating methods were…

New Hampshire's Performance Assessment of Competency Education (PACE) innovative assessment system uses student scores from classroom performance assessments as well as other classroom tests for school accountability purposes. One concern is that not having annual state testing may incentivize schools and teachers away from teaching the breadth of…

This note is concerned with evaluation of location parameters for polytomous items in multiple-component measuring instruments. A point and interval estimation procedure for these parameters is outlined that is developed within the framework of latent variable modeling. The method permits educational, behavioral, biomedical, and marketing…

Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) are an integral part of evaluating course outcomes. They are routinely used to evaluate teaching quality for the purposes of reappointment, promotion, and tenure (RPT), annual review, and the rehiring of adjunct faculty and lecturers. These evaluations are often based almost entirely on the mean or proportion…

Learning in asynchronous online environments has gained importance over the last several decades, and educational environment shifts from the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have increased this need. Science educators and students need information about which approaches work in the asynchronous environment where informal feedback tends to be reduced,…

Purpose: This study examined the psychometric properties of intention to drop out and study satisfaction measures for first-year South African students. The factorial validity, item bias, measurement invariance and reliability were tested. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional design was used. For the study on intention to drop out, 1,820…

Meta-analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) are 2 of the most prominent statistical techniques employed in the behavioral, medical, and social sciences. They each have their own well-established research communities, terminologies, statistical models, software packages, and journals ("Research Synthesis Methods" and…