Considerable thought is often put into designing randomized control trials (RCTs). From power analyses and complex sampling designs implemented preintervention to nuanced quasi-experimental models used to estimate treatment effects postintervention, RCT design can be quite complicated. Yet when psychological constructs measured using survey scales…

Prospective longitudinal data collection is an important way for researchers and evaluators to assess change. In school-based settings, for low-risk and/or likely-beneficial interventions or surveys, data quality and ethical standards are both arguably stronger when using a waiver of parental consent--but doing so often requires the use of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the latent structure type (categorical vs. dimensional) of bullying perpetration in a large sample of middle school students. A nine-item bullying scale was administered to 1,222 (625 boys, 597 girls) early adolescents enrolled in middle schools in a Midwestern state. Based on the results of a principal…

Studies comparing groups that are at different levels of multilevel data (namely, cross-level groups) using the same measure are not unusual such as student and teacher agreement in education or congruence between patient and physician perceptions in health research. Although establishing measurement invariance (MI) between these groups is…

Bullying among youth is recognized as a serious student problem, especially in middle school. The most common approach to measuring bullying is through student self-report surveys that ask questions about different types of bullying victimization. Although prior studies have shown that question-order effects may influence participant responses, no…

There are many reasons to believe that open-ended (OE) and multiple-choice (MC) items elicit different cognitive demands of students. However, empirical evidence that supports this view is lacking. In this study, we investigated the reactions of test takers to an interactive assessment with immediate feedback and answer-revision opportunities for…

Latent transition analysis (LTA) was initially developed to provide a means of measuring change in dynamic latent variables. In this article, we illustrate the use of a cognitive diagnostic model, the DINA model, as the measurement model in a LTA, thereby demonstrating a means of analyzing change in cognitive skills over time. An example is…

This report summarizes an empirical study that addresses two related topics within the context of writing assessment--illusory halo and how much unique information is provided by multiple analytic scores. Specifically, we address the issue of whether unique information is provided by analytic scores assigned to student writing, beyond what is…

A study was designed to examine a multidimensional measure of children's coping in the academic domain as part of a larger model of motivational resilience. Using items tapping multiple ways of dealing with academic problems, including five adaptive ways (strategizing, help-seeking, comfort-seeking, self-encouragement, and commitment) and six…