dynamic assessment (da) which is rooted in vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory involves the integration of instruction and assessment in a dialectical way to achieve two main purposes: enhancing learners' development and understanding about their learning potential. however, the feasibility and appropriateness of mediation are two main concerns of da. the former is concerned with the applica...

this study constitutes an attempt to see what language assessment literacy (lal) isfor three groups of stakeholders, namely lal test developers, lal instructors, andlal test-takers. the perceptions of the former group were derived from the contentanalysis of the latest version of the lal test, and those of the latter 2 groups wereassessed through a survey designed by the researcher. participant...

The application of Multifaceted Rasch Measurement (MFRM) in rating test takers’ oral language proficiency has been investigated in some previous studies (e.g., Winke, Gass, & Myford, 2012). However, little research so far has ever documented the effect of test takers’ genders on their oral performances and few studies have investigated the relationship between the impact of raters’ gender on th...

The Cognitive Science Research group at ETS conducts research and development at the forefront of educational assessment, using cognitive theory in the design of assessments, building cognitive models to guide interpretation of test-takers’ performance, and researching cognitive issues in the context of assessment. Moving beyond traditional (e.g., multiple-choice) tests, the group explores asse...

Differential item functioning (DIF) is when a test item favors or hinders a characteristic exhibited by group members of a test-taking population. DIF analyses are statistical procedures used to determine to what extent the content of an item affects the item endorsement of sub-groups of test-takers. If DIF is found for many items on the test, the final test scores do not represent the same mea...

Test washback is held to be complex and multifaceted in that a host of cultural, social, individual, test, and institutional factors are involved in shaping it. Thus far, the majority of washback studies have had as their focus the role of teachers in test washback or washback to teachers. How educational environments or institutions might function in isolation or in interaction with other fact...

In an attempt to assist proctors to prevent test takers from academic dishonesty in remotely administrated exams, this study investigated the ability of test takers’ behaviors during online assessments to predict their cheating decisions. Specifically, this experimental study focused on the role of students’ time delay and certainty rating during lab based online testing sessions. The analysis ...

In a randomized experiment with noncompliance, scientific interest is often in testing whether the treatment exposure X has an effect on the final outcome Y [2, 1]. We have proposed a finite-population significance test of the sharp null hypothesis that X has no effect on Y , within the principal stratum of compliers, using a generalized likelihood ratio test [4]. As both the null and alternati...