Automatic coding of short text responses opens new doors in assessment. We implemented and integrated baseline methods of natural language processing and statistical modelling by means of software components that are available under open licenses. The accuracy of automatic text coding is demonstrated by using data collected in the "Programme…

The selection of an appropriate booklet design is an important element of large-scale assessments of student achievement. Two design properties that are typically optimized are the "balance" with respect to the positions the items are presented and with respect to the mutual occurrence of pairs of items in the same booklet. The purpose…

When competence tests are administered, subjects frequently omit items. These missing responses pose a threat to correctly estimating the proficiency level. Newer model-based approaches aim to take nonignorable missing data processes into account by incorporating a latent missing propensity into the measurement model. Two assumptions are typically…

Multiple matrix designs are commonly used in large-scale assessments to distribute test items to students. These designs comprise several booklets, each containing a subset of the complete item pool. Besides reducing the test burden of individual students, using various booklets allows aligning the difficulty of the presented items to the assumed…

Although a substantial amount of research has been conducted on differential item functioning in testing, studies have focused on detecting differential item functioning rather than on explaining how or why it may occur. Some recent work has explored sources of differential functioning using explanatory and multilevel item response models. This…

The usefulness of multidimensional adaptive testing (MAT) for the assessment of student literacy in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) was examined within a real data simulation study. The responses of N = 14,624 students who participated in the PISA assessments of the years 2000, 2003, and 2006 in Germany were used to…

Whether an ability test delivered on either paper or computer provides the same information is an important question in applied psychometrics. Besides the validity, it is also the fairness of a measure that is at stake if the test medium affects performance. This study provides a comprehensive review of existing equivalence research in the field…

The notion of item context effects implies that psychometric properties of an item or scale are altered by the presentation format, for example, blocked versus randomized. In an experimental study with high school students, the experimental group (n = 407) answered a four-dimensional academic self-concept questionnaire, in which the items were…