Journal of Educational Measurement: Volume 55, Issue 4, Pages 564-581
Smoothing techniques are designed to improve the accuracy of equating functions. The main purpose of this study is to compare seven model selection strategies for choosing the smoothing parameter (C) for polynomial loglinear presmoothing and one procedure for model selection in cubic spline postsmoothing for mixed‐format pseudo tests under the random groups design.
Academic Medicine: November 2018 - Volume 93 - Issue 11S - p S21-S29
This study investigates the impact of incorporating observer-reported workload into workplace-based assessment (WBA) scores on (1) psychometric characteristics of WBA scores and (2) measuring changes in performance over time using workload-unadjusted versus workload-adjusted scores.
Journal of Pain and Symptom Management: Volume 56, Issue 3, p371-378
This article reviews the USMLE step examinations to determine whether they test the palliative care (PC) knowledge necessary for graduating medical students and residents applying for licensure.
Journal of Medical Regulation (2018) 104 (2): 51–57
There have been a number of important stakeholder opinions critical of the Step 2 Clinical Skills Examination (CS) in the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) licensure sequence. The Resident Program Director (RPD) Awareness survey was convened to gauge perceptions of current and potential Step 2 CS use, attitudes towards the importance of residents' clinical skills, and awareness of a medical student petition against Step 2 CS. This was a cross-sectional survey which resulted in 205 responses from a representative sampling of RPDs across various specialties, regions and program sizes.
Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 37: 5-8
This article spotlights the winners of the 2018 EM:IP Cover Graphic/Data Visualization Competition.
Journal of Educational Measurement: Volume 55, Issue 2, Pages 308-327
The widespread move to computerized test delivery has led to the development of new approaches to evaluating how examinees use testing time and to new metrics designed to provide evidence about the extent to which time limits impact performance. Much of the existing research is based on these types of observational metrics; relatively few studies use randomized experiments to evaluate the impact time limits on scores. Of those studies that do report on randomized experiments, none directly compare the experimental results to evidence from observational metrics to evaluate the extent to which these metrics are able to sensitively identify conditions in which time constraints actually impact scores. The present study provides such evidence based on data from a medical licensing examination.
Applied Psychological Measurement: Volume: 42 issue: 4, page(s): 291-306
The research presented in this article combines mathematical derivations and empirical results to investigate effects of the nonparametric anchoring vignette approach proposed by King, Murray, Salomon, and Tandon on the reliability and validity of rating data. The anchoring vignette approach aims to correct rating data for response styles to improve comparability across individuals and groups.
Academic Medicine: May 2018 - Volume 93 - Issue 5 - p 781-785
In 2007, the United States Medical Licensing Examination embedded multimedia simulations of heart sounds into multiple-choice questions. This study investigated changes in item difficulty as determined by examinee performance over time. The data reflect outcomes obtained following initial use of multimedia items from 2007 through 2012, after which an interface change occurred.
Applied Psychological Measurement: Volume: 42 issue: 8, page(s): 595-612
Conventional methods for evaluating the utility of subscores rely on reliability and correlation coefficients. However, correlations can overlook a notable source of variability: variation in subtest means/difficulties. Brennan introduced a reliability index for score profiles based on multivariate generalizability theory, designated as G, which is sensitive to variation in subtest difficulty. However, there has been little, if any, research evaluating the properties of this index. A series of simulation experiments, as well as analyses of real data, were conducted to investigate G under various conditions of subtest reliability, subtest correlations, and variability in subtest means.
Journal of Veterinary Medical Education 2018 45:3, 381-387
This study uses item response data from the November–December 2014 and April 2015 NAVLE administrations (n =5,292), to conduct timing analyses comparing performance across several examinee subgroups. The results provide evidence that conditions were sufficient for most examinees, thereby supporting the current time limits. For the relatively few examinees who may have been impacted, results suggest the cause is not a bias with the test but rather the effect of poor pacing behavior combined with knowledge deficits.