Alina A. von Davier – författare

Kernel Equating (KE) is a powerful, modern and unified approach to test equating. It is based on a flexible family of equipercentile-like equating functions and contains the linear equating function as a special case. Any equipercentile equating method has five steps or parts. They are: 1) pre-smoothing; 2) estimation of the score-probabilities on the target population; 3) continuization; 4) computing and diagnosing the equating function; 5) computing the standard error of equating and related accuracy measures. KE brings these steps together in an organized whole rather than treating them as disparate problems.

KE exploits pre-smoothing by fitting log-linear models to score data, and incorporates it into step 5) above. KE provides new tools for diagnosing a given equating function, and for comparing two or more equating functions in order to choose between them. In this book, KE is applied to the four major equating designs and to both Chain Equating and Post-Stratification Equating for the Non-Equivalent groups with Anchor Test Design.

This book will be an important reference for several groups: (a) Statisticians and others interested in the theory behind equating methods and the use of model-based statistical methods for data smoothing in applied work; (b) Practitioners who need to equate tests—including those with these responsibilities in testing companies, state testing agencies and school districts; and (c) Instructors in psychometric and measurement programs. The authors assume some familiarity with linear and equipercentile test equating, and with matrix algebra.

Alina von Davier is an Associate Research Scientist in the Center for Statistical Theory and Practice, at Educational Testing Service. She has been a research collaborator at the Universities of Trier, Magdeburg, and Kiel, an assistant professor at the Politechnical University of Bucharest and a research scientist at the Institute for Psychology inBucharest.

Paul Holland holds the Frederic M. Lord Chair in Measurement and Statistics at Educational Testing Service. He held faculty positions in the Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley and the Harvard Department of Statistics. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is an elected Member of the International Statistical Institute and a past president of the Psychometric society. He was awarded the (AERA/ACT) E. F. Lindquist Award, in 2000, and was designated a National Associate of the National Academies of Science in 2002.

Dorothy Thayer currently is a consultant in the Center of Statistical Theory and Practice, at Educational Testing Service. Her research interests include computational and statistical methodology, empirical Bayes techniques, missing data procedures and exploratory data analysis techniques.

From the reviews:

"The book is nicely laid out, is extremely well written, and is an excellent text for a semester course or a short course…The book is highly recommended." Short Book Reviews of the International Statistical Institute, December 2004

"This book is well-written and the presentation is clear, rigorous, and concise...A rich set of applications is used to illustrate the methods...This book is a gem! I highly recommend it to any statistician or psychometrician who has even a passing interest in test equating." Pscyhometrika, March 2006

"This is a great book, and it is the first to focus on the kernel method of test equating." Applied Psychological Measurement, September 2005

This volume presents a comprehensive collection of the latest research findings supporting the current and future implementations and applications of computerized multistage testing (MST).

As a sequel to the widely acclaimed Computerized Multistage Testing: Theory and Applications (2014) by Yan, von Davier, and Lewis, this volume delves into the experiences, considerations, challenges, and lessons learned over the past years. It also offers practical approaches and solutions to the issues encountered. The topics covered include purposeful MST designs, practical approaches for optimal design, assembly strategies for accuracy and efficiency, hybrid designs, MST with natural language processing, practical routing considerations and methodologies, item calibration and proficiency estimation methods, routing and classification accuracy, added value of process data, prediction and evaluation of MST performance, cognitive diagnostic MST, differential item functioning, robustness of statistical methods, simulations, test security, the new digital large-scale Scholastic Aptitude Test, software for practical assessment and simulations, artificial intelligence impact, and the future of adaptive MST.

This volume is intended for students, faculty, researchers, practitioners, and education officers in the fields of educational measurement and evaluation in the United States and internationally.

This volume presents a comprehensive collection of the latest research findings supporting the current and future implementations and applications of computerized multistage testing (MST).

As a sequel to the widely acclaimed Computerized Multistage Testing: Theory and Applications (2014) by Yan, von Davier, and Lewis, this volume delves into the experiences, considerations, challenges, and lessons learned over the past years. It also offers practical approaches and solutions to the issues encountered. The topics covered include purposeful MST designs, practical approaches for optimal design, assembly strategies for accuracy and efficiency, hybrid designs, MST with natural language processing, practical routing considerations and methodologies, item calibration and proficiency estimation methods, routing and classification accuracy, added value of process data, prediction and evaluation of MST performance, cognitive diagnostic MST, differential item functioning, robustness of statistical methods, simulations, test security, the new digital large-scale Scholastic Aptitude Test, software for practical assessment and simulations, artificial intelligence impact, and the future of adaptive MST.

This volume is intended for students, faculty, researchers, practitioners, and education officers in the fields of educational measurement and evaluation in the United States and internationally.

Generalized Kernel Equating is a comprehensive guide for statisticians, psychometricians, and educational researchers aiming to master test score equating. This book introduces the Generalized Kernel Equating (GKE) framework, providing the necessary tools and methodologies for accurate and fair score comparisons.

The book presents test score equating as a statistical problem and covers all commonly used data collection designs. It details the five steps of the GKE framework: presmoothing, estimating score probabilities, continuization, equating transformation, and evaluating the equating transformation. Various presmoothing strategies are explored, including log-linear models, item response theory models, beta4 models, and discrete kernel estimators. The estimation of score probabilities when using IRT models is described and Gaussian kernel continuization is extended to other kernels such as uniform, logistic, epanechnikov and adaptive kernels. Several bandwidth selection methods are described. The kernel equating transformation and variants of it are defined, and both equating-specific and statistical measures for evaluating equating transformations are included. Real data examples, guiding readers through the GKE steps with detailed R code and explanations are provided. Readers are equipped with an advanced knowledge and practical skills for implementing test score equating methods.

Generalized Kernel Equating is a comprehensive guide for statisticians, psychometricians, and educational researchers aiming to master test score equating. This book introduces the Generalized Kernel Equating (GKE) framework, providing the necessary tools and methodologies for accurate and fair score comparisons.

The book presents test score equating as a statistical problem and covers all commonly used data collection designs. It details the five steps of the GKE framework: presmoothing, estimating score probabilities, continuization, equating transformation, and evaluating the equating transformation. Various presmoothing strategies are explored, including log-linear models, item response theory models, beta4 models, and discrete kernel estimators. The estimation of score probabilities when using IRT models is described and Gaussian kernel continuization is extended to other kernels such as uniform, logistic, epanechnikov and adaptive kernels. Several bandwidth selection methods are described. The kernel equating transformation and variants of it are defined, and both equating-specific and statistical measures for evaluating equating transformations are included. Real data examples, guiding readers through the GKE steps with detailed R code and explanations are provided. Readers are equipped with an advanced knowledge and practical skills for implementing test score equating methods.

This book defines and describes a new discipline, named “computational psychometrics,” from the perspective of new methodologies for handling complex data from digital learning and assessment. The editors and the contributing authors discuss how new technology drastically increases the possibilities for the design and administration of learning and assessment systems, and how doing so significantly increases the variety, velocity, and volume of the resulting data. Then they introduce methods and strategies to address the new challenges, ranging from evidence identification and data modeling to the assessment and prediction of learners’ performance in complex settings, as in collaborative tasks, game/simulation-based tasks, and multimodal learning and assessment tasks.

In this volume, experts in psychometrics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, data science and natural language processing illustrate their work, showing how the interdisciplinary expertise of each researcher blends into a coherent methodological framework to deal with complex data from complex virtual interfaces. In the chapters focusing on methodologies, the authors use real data examples to demonstrate how to implement the new methods in practice. The corresponding programming codes in R and Python have been included as snippets in the book and are also available in fuller form in the GitHub code repository that accompanies the book.

This edited volume provides a platform for experts from various fields to introduce and discuss their different perspectives on the topic of teamwork and collaborative problem solving. It brings together researchers in organizational teaming, educational collaboration, tutoring, simulation, and gaming as well as those involved in statistical and psychometric process modelling. This book seeks to channel this expertise towards advances in the measurement and assessment of cognitive and non-cognitive skills of individuals and teams.