Educational Methodology, Policy, and Leadership Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Educational Methodology, Policy, and Leadership Theses and Dissertations by Author "Adkins, Deborah"

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    Interest Based Assessment: The Impact of Choice in Measures of Assessment on Performance and Engagement
    (University of Oregon, 2020-09-24) Adkins, Deborah; Scalise, Kathleen
    The role of interest in assessment on student performance and engagement is an area of research that has yet to be fully examined. I explored models of assessment grounded in Item Response Theory (IRT) to identify the model that best fit an assessment that utilized interest-based context when administered to middle school students (grades 6–8) in Washington, Oregon, Illinois, and North Carolina (N = 517). I examined test properties (i.e., measurement precision & differential item functioning) across test forms. I evaluated the impact of context (i.e., context matched in contrast to not matched to student interest ) on systematic measures of student engagement. Measures included response time fidelity (RTF) and response time engagement (RTE) which measure item and test level engagement respectively. Results from IRT modeling showed the unidimensional 1PL model to exhibit reasonable fit for the purpose of this assessment. Results for RTF suggested solution behavior on individual items was similar across students irrespective of context. Similarly, the three-way, between-subjects analysis of variance suggested that RTE did not differ by context, grade, nor gender. Although significant differences were not identified in achievement nor engagement with this reading assessment, it opens the door for further research across multiple subject areas.