Search for: All records

Abstract This study describes preservice teachers' beliefs about teaching mathematics for social justice (TMSJ) after experiencing a two‐part professional development (PD) workshop on the subject. The research question is: To what degree does a PD experience, designed by a preservice teacher, influence preservice teachers' beliefs about TMSJ? The lead author is a preservice teacher who designed and enacted two workshops for education majors at Midwest University. Results indicated that preservice teachers' beliefs were statistically significantly different, with their beliefs trending toward “more strongly agree” about TMSJ after the two‐part PD. There was also less variance in their responses to the survey after the PD compared to before it. This research offers (a) a narrative of preservice teacher‐driven PD and (b) a rich description of a PD for preservice teachers, thus adding to prior literature about in‐service teachers' outcomes. 

Testing is a part of education around the world; however, there are concerns that consequences of testing is underexplored within current educational scholarship. Moreover, usability studies are rare within education. One aim of the present study was to explore the usability of a mathematics problem-solving test called the Problem Solving Measures–Computer-Adaptive Test (PSM-CAT) designed for grades six to eight students (ages 11–14). The second aim of this mixed-methods research was to unpack consequences of testing validity evidence related to the results and test interpretations, leveraging the voices of participants. A purposeful, representative sample of over 1000 students from rural, suburban, and urban districts across the USA were administered PSM-CAT followed by a survey. Approximately 100 of those students were interviewed following test administration. Findings indicated that (1) participants engaged in the PSM-CAT as desired and found it highly usable (e.g., most respondents were able to use and find the calculator and several students commented that they engaged with the test as desired) and (2) the benefits from testing largely outweighed any negative outcomes (e.g., 92% of students interviewed had positive attitudes towards the testing experiences), which in turn supports consequences from testing validity evidence for PSM-CAT. This study provides an example of a usability study for educational testing and builds upon previous calls for greater consequences of testing research. 

This study explored how mathematics problem-solving constructed-response tests compared in terms of item psychometrics when administered to eighth grade students in two different static formats: paper-pencil and computer-based. Quantitative results indicated similarly across all psychometric indices for the overall tests and at the item-level. 

The purpose of this proceeding is to share a component to a validity argument for a new, computer adaptive mathematics Problem-Solving Measure that is designed for grades six through eight (PSM 6-8). The PSM is a single test, which uses computer adaptive features to measure students’ performance using instructional standards. It is intended to measure students’ problem-solving performance related to instructional standards. 

Assessment continues to be an important conversation point within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education scholarship and practice (Krupa et al., 2019; National Research Council, 2001). There are guidelines for developing and evaluating assess- ments (e.g., AERA et al., 2014; Carney et al., 2022; Lavery et al., 2019; Wilson & Wilmot, 2019). There are also Standards for Educational & Psychological Testing (Standards; AERA et al., 2014) that discuss important rele- vant frameworks and information about using assessment results and interpretations. Quantitative assessments are used as part of daily STEM instruction, STEM research, and STEM evaluation; therefore, having robust assess- ments is necessary (National Research Council, 2001). An aim of this editorial is to give readers a few relevant ideas about modern assessment research, some guidance for the use of quantitative assessments, and framing validation and assessment research as equity-forward work. 

Lengthy standardized assessments decrease instructional time while increasing concerns about student cognitive fatigue. This study presents a methodological approach for item reduction within a complex assessment setting using the Problem Solving Measure for Grade 6 (PSM6). Five item-reduction methods were utilized to reduce the number of items on the PSM6, and each shortened instrument was evaluated through validity evidence for test content, internal structure, and relationships to other variables. The two quantitative methods (Rasch model and point-biserial) resulted in the best psychometrically performing shortened assessments but were not representative of all content subdomains, while the three qualitative (content preservation) methods resulted in poor psychometrically performing assessments that retained all subdomains. Specifically, the ten-item Rasch and ten-item point-biserial shortened tests demonstrated the overall strongest validity evidence, but future research is needed to explore the psychometric performance of these versions in a new independent sample and the necessity for subdomain representation. Implications for the study provide a methodological framework for researchers to use and reduce the length of existing instruments while identifying how the various reduction strategies may sacrifice different information from the original instrument. Practitioners are encouraged to carefully examine to what extent their reduced instrument aligns with their pre-determined criteria.