In this article, a proposed Bayesian extension of the generalized beta spatial regression models is applied to the analysis of the quality of education in Colombia. We briefly revise the beta distribution and describe the joint modeling approach for the mean and dispersion parameters in the spatial regression models' setting. Finally, we…

Test-based accountability as well as value-added asessments and much experimental and quasi-experimental research in education rely on achievement tests to measure student skills and knowledge. Yet, we know little regarding fundamental properties of these tests, an important example being the extent of measurement error and its implications for…

The item response times (RTs) collected from computerized testing represent an underutilized type of information about items and examinees. In addition to knowing the examinees' responses to each item, we can investigate the amount of time examinees spend on each item. Current models for RTs mainly focus on parametric models, which have the…

It is common practice to log-transform response times before analyzing them with standard factor analytical methods. However, sometimes the log-transformation is not capable of linearizing the relation between the response times and the latent traits. Therefore, a more general approach to response time analysis is proposed in the current…

Dominance analysis (DA) is a method used to evaluate the relative importance of predictors that was originally proposed for linear regression models. This article proposes an extension of DA that allows researchers to determine the relative importance of predictors in hierarchical linear models (HLM). Commonly used measures of model adequacy in…

The authors present a generalization of the multiple-group bifactor model that extends the classical bifactor model for categorical outcomes by relaxing the typical assumption of independence of the specific dimensions. In addition to the means and variances of all dimensions, the correlations among the specific dimensions are allowed to differ…

Though ubiquitous, Likert scaling's traditional mode of analysis is often unable to uncover all of the valid information in a data set. Here, the authors discuss a solution to this problem based on methodology developed by quantum physicists: the state multipole method. The authors demonstrate the relative ease and value of this method by…

The evaluation of the formative process in the University system has been assuming an ever increasing importance in the European countries. Within this context, the analysis of student performance and capabilities plays a fundamental role. In this work, the authors propose a multivariate latent growth model for studying the performances of a…

When studying educational aspirations of adolescents, it is unrealistic to assume that the aspirations of pupils are independent of those of their friends. Considerable attention has also been given to the study of peer influence in the educational and behavioral literature. Typically, in empirical studies, the friendship networks have either been…

A new effect size representing the predictive power of an independent variable from a multiple regression model is presented. The index, denoted as r[subscript sp], is the semipartial correlation of the predictor with the outcome of interest. This effect size can be computed when multiple predictor variables are included in the regression model…

A wide literature uses date of birth as an instrument to study the causal effects of educational attainment. This paper shows how parents delaying their children's initial enrollment in kindergarten, a practice known as redshirting, can make estimates obtained through this identification framework all but impossible to interpret. A latent index…

Measuring teacher effectiveness is challenging since no direct estimate exists; teacher effectiveness can be measured only indirectly through student responses. Traditional value-added assessment (VAA) models generally attempt to estimate the value that an individual teacher adds to students' knowledge as measured by scores on successive…

For mixed-type tests composed of both dichotomous and polytomous items, polytomous items often yield more information than dichotomous ones. To reflect the difference between the two types of items, polytomous items are usually pre-assigned with larger weights. We propose an item-weighted likelihood method to better assess examinees' ability…

In the human sciences, ability tests or psychological inventories are often repeatedly conducted to measure growth. Standard item response models do not take into account possible autocorrelation in longitudinal data. In this study, the authors propose an item response model to account for autocorrelation. The proposed three-level model consists…

This study proposes robust means modeling (RMM) approaches for hypothesis testing of mean differences for between-subjects designs in order to control the biasing effects of nonnormality and variance inequality. Drawing from structural equation modeling (SEM), the RMM approaches make no assumption of variance homogeneity and employ robust…