Development and validation of the sense of competence scale - revised.

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure the sense of competence of traditional age college students across the dimensions that define the construct. The Sense of Competence Scale-Revised (SCS-R) was developed to provide a measure of Chickering's (1969) first vector, an important psychosocial construct. Administrators can use data from the instrument to modify an institution's academic and social environment to enhance the development of the intellectual, physical, and interpersonal competencies of college students. During the development and validation, various aspects of the SCS-R were examined in accordance with the validity framework outlined by Messick (1995). Of the six types of validity evidence proposed by Messick (1995), four were the primary focus: content, substantive, structural and generalizability. The evidence generated from the study suggested that the chosen items for the SCS-R support the validity of estimates of a student's personal assessment of their sense of competence.

Equating designs and procedures used in Rasch scaling.

The development of alternate forms of tests requires a statistical score adjustment called equating that permits the interchanging of scores from different test forms. Equating makes possible several important measurement applications, including removing practice effects in pretest-posttest research designs, improving test security, comparing scores between new and old forms, and supporting item bank development for computerized adaptive testing. This article summarizes equating methods from a Rasch measurement perspective. The four sections of this article present an introduction and definition of equating and related linking methods, data collection designs, equating procedures, and evaluating equated measures. The methods are illustrated with worked examples.

Linking classical test theory and two-level hierarchical linear models.

This paper considers the link between classical test theory (CTT) and two-level hierarchical linear models (HLM). Conceptualizing that items are nested within subjects, we can reformulate the ANOVA classical test model as an HLM. In this HLM framework, item difficulty parameters are represented by the fixed effects, and subject's abilities are represented by the random effects. The population reliability of either the total or the mean score can be represented by a function of the random effects parameters and the number of items. For estimation, taking advantage of the balanced design nature of CTT, we can obtain explicit formulas for parameter estimates of both fixed and random effects in HLM. It reveals that the formula and the estimate derived from HLM exactly match those of CTT reliability, which are equivalent to Cronbach's coefficient alpha under the assumptions of essentially tau equivalent measures. Not only that, we can obtain most of the important quantities in CTT such as estimates of item difficulty, standard error of measurement, true score, and person ability in a single HLM model. Thus, the CTT model formulated by HLM framework provides a systematic approach on measurement analysis by CTT. For illustrative purpose, a small data set was analyzed using HLM software (Raudenbush, Bryk, Cheong, & Congdon, 2000). The results confirmed the theoretical link between CTT and HLM.

Bookmark locations and item response model selection in the presence of local item dependence.

The bookmark standard setting procedure is a popular method for setting performance standards on state assessment programs. This study reanalyzed data from an application of the bookmark procedure to a passage-based test that used the Rasch model to create the item ordered booklet. Several problems were noted in this implementation of the bookmark procedure, including disagreement among the SMEs about the correct order of items in the bookmark booklet, performance level descriptions of the passing standard being based on passage difficulty as well as item difficulty, and the presence of local item dependence within reading passages. Bookmark item locations were recalculated for the IRT three-parameter model and the multidimensional bifactor model. The results showed that the order of item locations was very similar for all three models when items of high difficulty and low discrimination were excluded. However, the items whose positions were the most discrepant between models were not the items that the SMEs disagreed about the most in the original standard setting. The choice of latent trait model did not address problems of item order disagreement. Implications for the use of the bookmark method in the presence of local item dependence are discussed.

The relationship between coping and depression in men and women referred for in vitro fertilization.

This study examined coping with infertility and how coping is related to depression for men and women. Results showed that both men and women who engage in a disproportionate degree of escape/avoidance behavior and acceptance of responsibility for infertility were more vulnerable to symptoms of depression.