Welcome to Θ – b, a site dedicated to improving the field of educational and psychological measurement through the sharing of instructional resources, research findings, and statistical tools.
This site is maintained by Tony Albano, Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Davis. More here.
Measurement, in the fields of education and psychology, is the process of gathering information and making inferences about human attributes like knowledge, achievement, and motivation.
Measurement is concerned with the interaction between person and item, sometimes expressed as Θ – b. Good measurement optimizes this interaction via:
The ideal result is actionable information that supports decisions regarding things like academic abilities, preparation for college, and qualifications for a career.
If you’re liking what you hear, check out my intro measurement book. It’s free online and as a PDF, and will soon be available for print on demand.
As you might expect, the answer to this question is, sometimes. Equitable testing depends on what we consider tests, and how we define equity. In the past few years, we’ve seen a big swell of interest in equity, social justice, and antiracism in educational measurement. Two articles that I reference and share often are Sireci …
Continue reading “Can Educational and Psychological Testing be Equitable?”
Educational and psychological measurement is like lots of things. In introductory textbooks, it’s compared to physical measurement – rulers for measuring length or floor scales for measuring weight. Another popular analogy is shooting at a target. Picture Robin Hood splitting the Sheriff of Nottingham’s arrow, like it’s no big deal, to claim the bullseye – …
Continue reading “What is Educational and Psychological Measurement Like?”
Brian French, Thao Thu Vo, and I recently (February, 2024) published an open-access paper in Applied Measurement in Education on Traditional vs Intersectional DIF Analysis: Considerations and a Comparison Using State Testing Data. https://doi.org/10.1080/08957347.2024.2311935 The paper extends research by Russell and colleagues (e.g., 2021) on intersectional differential item functioning (DIF). Here’s our abstract. Recent research …
Continue reading “Article on Intersectional DIF in Applied Measurement in Education”
