Theory-based metrological traceability in education: A reading measurement network

Huge resources are invested in metrology and standards in the natural sciences, engineering, and across a wide range of commercial technologies. Significant positive returns of human, social, environmental, and economic value on these investments have been sustained for decades. Proven methods for calibrating test and survey instruments in linear units are readily available, as are data- and theory-based methods for equating those instruments to a shared unit. Using these methods, metrological traceability is obtained in a variety of commercially available elementary and secondary English and Spanish language reading education programs in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Australia. Given established historical patterns, widespread routine reproduction of predicted text-based and instructional effects expressed in a common language and shared frame of reference may lead to significant developments in theory and practice. Opportunities for systematic implementations of teacher-driven lean thinking and continuous quality improvement methods may be of particular interest and value

A technology roadmap for intangible assets metrology

Published in: Proceedings of the 14th Joint International IMEKO TC1 + TC7 + TC 13 Symposium : "Intelligent quality measurements - theory, education and training" ; in conjunction with the 56th IWK, Ilmenau University of Technology and the 11th SpectroNet Collaboration Forum ; 31. August - 2. September 2011, JenTower Jena, Germany. - Ilmenau : Univ.-Bibliothek, ilmedia, 2011. URN: urn:nbn:de:gbv:ilm1-2011imeko:

Towards an alignment of engineering and psychometric approaches to uncertainty in measurement: Consequences for the future

The International Vocabulary of Measurement (VIM) and the Guide to Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) shift the terms and concepts of measurement information quality away from an Error Approach toward a model-based Uncertainty Approach. An analogous shift has taken place in psychometrics with the decreasing use of True Score Theory and increasing attention to probabilistic models for unidimensional measurement. These corresponding shifts emerge from shared roots in cognitive processes common across the sciences and they point toward new opportunities for an art and science of living complex adaptive systems. The psychology of model-based reasoning sets the stage for not just a new consensus on measurement and uncertainty, and not just for a new valuation of the scientific status of psychology and the social sciences, but for an appreciation of how to harness the energy of self-organizing processes in ways that harmonize human relationships

Causal Rasch models

Rasch’s unidimensional models for measurement show how to connect object measures (e.g., reader abilities), measurement mechanisms (e.g., machine-generated cloze reading items), and observational outcomes (e.g., counts correct on reading instruments). Substantive theory shows what interventions or manipulations to the measurement mechanism can be traded off against a change to the object measure to hold the observed outcome constant. A Rasch model integrated with a substantive theory dictates the form and substance of permissible interventions. Rasch analysis, absent construct theory and an associated specification equation, is a black box in which understanding may be more illusory than not. Finally, the quantitative hypothesis can be tested by comparing theory-based trade-off relations with observed trade-off relations. Only quantitative variables (as measured) support such trade-offs. Note that to test the quantitative hypothesis requires more than manipulation of the algebraic equivalencies in the Rasch model or descriptively fitting data to the model. A causal Rasch model involves experimental intervention/manipulation on either reader ability or text complexity or a conjoint intervention on both simultaneously to yield a successful prediction of the resultant observed outcome (count correct). We conjecture that when this type of manipulation is introduced for individual reader text encounters and model predictions are consistent with observations, the quantitative hypothesis is sustained

EVOC: un Instrumento para Evaluar Vocabulario en Español en Chile

This study describes the creation and validation of an adaptive and self-applied test of lexicon in Spanish for kindergarten to eighth-grade basic school students. Using a corpus of 1,000,000 words from school texts, some words with different frequency and difficulty were selected. The test items were prepared according to the test format PPVT representing each word with pictures. The distractors were generated randomly from the same corpus. The construct validity, concurrent validity and internal consistency were determined. EVOC is a valid and reliable instrument to evaluate the lexicon in Spanish that allows adapting the pedagogical practices to the student’s needs.  Este estudio describe la creación y validación de una prueba adaptativa y autoadministrada de vocabulario en español para estudiantes de kínder a octavo año básico.Usando un corpus de un millón de palabras,provenientes de textos escolares,se seleccionaron palabras de distinta frecuencia y dificultad. Se confeccionaron ítems siguiendo el formato del test PPVT que representa cada palabra mediante fotografías. Los distractores se originan aleatoriamente desde el mismo corpus. Se estableció la validez del constructo,concurrente y con consistencia interna. EVOC es un instrumento válido y confiable para evaluar vocabulario en español que permite adaptar las prácticas pedagógicas a las necesidades de los alumnos