Given the rapid advancement of computer technology, the importance of administeringadaptive tests with polytomous items is in great need. With regard to the applicability ofadaptive testing using polytomous IRT models, adaptive testing can use polytomous items of either rating scales, or in some...

The ability to work with graphs is at the core of the economic domain and is also one of the central challenges for novices in the field. To accurately assess the graph competence of higher education students, we developed and tested an 18-item graph competence instrument with different...

The main purposes of this study were to systematically investigate the impact of representativeness and non-representativeness of common-item sets in terms of statistical, content, and format specifications in mixed-format tests using concurrent calibration with unidimensional IRT models, as...

Measuring continuous change or growth in individual students' academic abilities over time currently uses several statistical models or transformations to move from data representing a student's correct or incorrect responses on individual test items to inferences about the form and quantity of...

If data exhibit a dimensional structure more complex than what is assumed, key conditional independence assumptions of the hypothesized model do not hold. The current work pursues posterior predictive model checking, a flexible family of Bayesian model checking procedures, as a tool for...

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the local item dependence (LID) of testlet items on the performance of the multistage tests (MST) that make pass/fail decisions. In this study, LID is simulated in testlet items. Testlet items are those that physically share the...

This dissertation compares the parameter estimates obtained from two item response theory (IRT) models: the 1-PL IRT model and the MC1-PL IRT model. Several scenarios were explored in which both unidimensional and multidimensional item-level and personal-level data were used to generate the item...

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the psychometric properties of the original five-point CWEQ II using Item Response Theory (IRT) methods, followed by an examination of the revised three-point CWEQ II. (1) Background: The psychometric properties of the CWEQ II have not been previously...

We study the impact of child work on cognitive development in four Low- and Middle-Income Countries. We advance the literature by using cognitive test scores collected regardless of school attendance. We also address a key gap in the literature by controlling for children's complete time...

Measurement invariance is a fundamental assumption in item response theory models, where the relationship between a latent construct (ability) and observed item responses is of interest. Violation of this assumption would render the scale misinterpreted or cause systematic bias against certain...