Intervention studies in school systems are sometimes aimed not at changing curriculum or classroom technique, but rather at changing the way that teachers, teaching coaches, and administrators in schools work with one another--in short, changing the professional social networks of educators. Current methods of social network analysis are…

When constructed response test items are scored by more than one rater, the repeated ratings allow for the consideration of individual rater bias and variability in estimating student proficiency. Several hierarchical models based on item response theory have been introduced to model such effects. In this article, the authors demonstrate how these…

Unfolding response models, a class of item response theory (IRT) models that assume a unimodal item response function (IRF), are often used for the measurement of attitudes. Verhelst and Verstralen (1993)and Andrich and Luo (1993) independently developed unfolding response models by relating the observed responses to a more common monotone IRT…

Discusses the hierarchical rater model (HRM) of R. Patz (1996) and shows how it can be used to scale examinees and items, model aspects of consensus among raters, and model individual rater severity and consistency effects. Also shows how the HRM fits into the generalizability theory framework. Compares the HRM to the conventional item response…

Demonstrates Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques that are well-suited to complex models with Item Response Theory (IRT) assumptions. Develops an MCMC methodology that can be routinely implemented to fit normal IRT models, and compares the approach to approaches based on Gibbs sampling. Contains 64 references. (SLD)

Extends the basic Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) strategy of R. Patz and B. Junker (1999) for Bayesian inference in complex Item Response Theory settings to address issues such as nonresponse, designed missingness, multiple raters, guessing behaviors, and partial credit (polytomous) test items. Applies the MCMC method to data from the National…