Out-of-level testing refers to the practice of assessing a student with a test that is intended for students at a higher or lower grade level. Although the appropriateness of out-of-level testing for accountability purposes has been questioned by educators and policymakers, incorporating out-of-level items in formative assessments for accurate…

The current study applied the person-fit statistic, l[subscript z], to data from a Canadian provincial achievement test to explore the usefulness of conducting person-fit analysis on large-scale assessments. Item parameter estimates were compared before and after the misfitting student responses, as identified by l[subscript z], were removed. The…

The assessment of higher-education student learning outcomes is an important component in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of academic and general education programs. This study illustrates the application of diagnostic classification models, a burgeoning set of statistical models, in assessing student learning outcomes. To facilitate…

In this study, we investigated differential item functioning (DIF) and its sources using a latent class (LC) modeling approach. Potential sources of LC DIF related to instruction and teacher-related variables were investigated using substantive and three statistical approaches: descriptive discriminant function, multinomial logistic regression,…

International large-scale assessments of achievement often have a large degree of differential item functioning (DIF) between countries, which can threaten score equivalence and reduce the validity of inferences based on comparisons of group performances. It is important to understand potential sources of DIF to improve the validity of future…

The proper use of psychological tests requires that the measurement instruments have adequate psychometric properties, such as reliability and validity, and that the professionals who use the instruments have the necessary expertise. In this article, we present the first review of tests published in Spain, carried out with an assessment model…

In this study, the Canadian English and French versions of the Problem-Solving Measure of the Programme for International Student Assessment 2003 were examined to investigate their degree of measurement comparability at the item- and test-levels. Three methods of differential item functioning (DIF) were compared: parametric and nonparametric item…

Test equating is a statistical procedure for adjusting for test form differences in difficulty in a standardized assessment. Equating results are supposed to hold for a specified target population (Kolen & Brennan, 2004; von Davier, Holland, & Thayer, 2004) and to be (relatively) independent of the subpopulations from the target population (see…

Measurement invariance is a common consideration in the evaluation of the validity and fairness of test scores when the tested population contains distinct groups of examinees, such as examinees receiving different forms of a translated test. Measurement invariance in polytomous items has traditionally been evaluated at the item-level,…

Personnel selection shows an enduring need for short stand-alone tests consisting of, say, 5 to 15 items. Despite their efficiency, short tests are more vulnerable to measurement error than longer test versions. Consequently, the question arises to what extent reducing test length deteriorates decision quality due to increased impact of…

After a test is developed, most content validation analyses shift from ascertaining domain definition to studying domain representation and relevance because the domain is assumed to be set once a test exists. We present an approach that allows for the examination of alternative domain structures based on extant test items. In our example based on…

A critical assumption in cross-cultural comparative research is that the instrument measures the same construct(s) in exactly the same way across all groups (i.e., the instrument is measurement and structurally equivalent). Structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures are commonly used in testing these assumptions of multigroup equivalence.…

The huge technological improvement in data processing and the globalization have increased the demand for and the supply of indices that quantify the consequences of a policy. However, there are certain cases in which quantification may be misleading in the sense that it gives the impression of an accurate measurement while in reality it is not.…

Despite the importance of self-structural variables to understand self-processes, research in this area has been hampered by measurement problems. The current study seeks to clarify this situation by examining the interrelationships among six self-structural measures of trait-sorting data of 252 Chinese college students: the "H" statistic of…

With the increasing globalization of human resources practices, a commensurate increase in demand has occurred for multi-language ("global") personality norms for use in selection and development efforts. The combination of data from multiple translations of a personality assessment into a single norm engenders error from multiple sources. This…