A Longitudinal Analysis of Doctoral Graduate Supply in the Educational Measurement Field

For nearly three decades, researchers have been concerned that the educational measurement field is not producing enough graduate‐level specialists to meet the growing demand driven by the increased use of educational assessments in the United States. This study examined the supply‐side aspect of the proposed labor shortage by relying on data from the National Science Foundation's Survey of Earned Doctorates collected between 1997 and 2016. Over the 20 years examined, measurement programs produced 3,124 doctoral graduates, and across this time span, the annual production of graduates nearly doubled. This supply expansion can largely be attributed to the increase in the number of international graduates, which outpaced the annual growth rate of domestic PhD recipients by 156%. Moreover, 85% of graduates were found to either self‐identify as White or Asian. Less than 10 Hispanic and no more than 20 Black graduates were produced in any of the years examined. Of the 76% of graduates that reported having a job offer or accepted a position upon graduation, most entered the academy despite the overall average starting salary ($59,484) being considerably lower than the starting salary for their counterparts entering industry ($84,918), government ($69,970), or other educational institutions ($81,428).     

Novel Approaches to Examine Passage,Student, and Question Effects on Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is influenced by sources of variance associated with the reader and the task. To gain insight into the complex interplay of multiple sources of influence, we employed crossed random‐effects item response models. These models allowed us to simultaneously examine the degree to which variables related to the type of passage and student characteristics influenced students’ (n = 94; mean age = 11.97 years) performance on two indicators of reading comprehension: different types of comprehension questions and passage fluency. We found that variables related to word recognition, language, and executive function were influential across various types of passages and comprehension questions and also predicted a reader's passage fluency. Further, an exploratory analysis of two‐way interaction effects was conducted. Results suggest that understanding the relative influence of passage, question, and student variables has implications for identifying struggling readers and designing interventions to address their individual needs.     

Explaining the Effectiveness of the Integrated Model of Advice-Giving in Supportive Interactions: The Mediating Roles of Politeness and Normativeness

The current study examined the effect of the Integrated Model of Advice-giving (Emotional Support—Problem Inquiry and Analysis—Advice) on recipients’ responses to advice, exploring the mediating roles of perceived regard for face and normativeness. Participants read and responded to a conversation in which they received advice from a friend regarding a problematic situation. Results indicated that perceived regard for positive face mediated the relationship between the sequential placement of emotional support and recipients’ responses to advice. Neither perceived regard for face nor normativeness mediated the relationship between the sequential placement of problem inquiry and analysis and recipients’ responses to advice. Findings of this study suggest that the provision of emotional support has a primary role in IMA and is effective in addressing the positive face needs of advice recipient.     

Equal access to early childhood education in South Korea using the Geographic Information System

While the importance of early childhood education is well documented, scant attention is afforded to the access to institutions for early childhood education. Uneven distribution of institutions for early childhood education in segregated metropolitan areas can cause inequality of educational opportunity. By using the Geographic Information System tools, this paper investigates the extent to which both demand and supply in early childhood education is geographically balanced across Seoul, Korea. The analysis finds that kindergartens and daycare centres authorised by the government are evenly distributed across Seoul according to the demand. Yet, market-oriented English kindergartens are disproportionately concentrated in the southern areas of Seoul where families with higher income levels are clustered. These findings suggest that because market-driven institutions for early childhood education are not uniformly distributed corresponding to the demand, home residence according to parents’ income and occupation creates a type of educational inequality.     

Self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, academic self-efficacy, and internet self-efficacy in web-based instruction

Effects of student motivation on performance in Web-based instruction (WBI) were examined. In particular, applicability of the self-efficacy theory to WBI contexts was tested. A total of 152 junior high school students in Seoul, Korea, participated in WBI during regular science classes. Participants completed motivational surveys before the onset of WBI and took the written and search tests at the end of WBI. Path analyses revealed that students' self-efficacy for self-regulated learning positively related to their academic self-efficacy, strategy use, and Internet self-efficacy. Academic self-efficacy predicted students' performance on the written test, which comprised problems on topics covered during the previous WBI sessions. Students' scores on the WBI search test were significantly and positively predicted by their self-efficacy in using the Internet. More interesting, students' academic self-efficacy beliefs were not able to predict their search test performance, whereas students' Internet self-efficacy beliefs were not able to predict their written test performance.This research is based on data collected as part of Ha-Jeen Choi's master's thesis completed at Ewha Womans University.The authors thank Steven Ross and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.     

An NCME Instructional Module on Latent DIF Analysis Using Mixture Item Response Models

The purpose of this ITEMS module is to provide an introduction to differential item functioning (DIF) analysis using mixture item response models. The mixture item response models for DIF analysis involve comparing item profiles across latent groups, instead of manifest groups. First, an overview of DIF analysis based on latent groups, called latent DIF analysis, is provided and its applications in the literature are surveyed. Then, the methodological issues pertaining to latent DIF analysis are described, including mixture item response models, parameter estimation, and latent DIF detection methods. Finally, recommended steps for latent DIF analysis are illustrated using empirical data.     

Interdisciplinary dialogues as a site for reflexive exploration of conceptual understandings of teaching–learning relationships

This study examines what the members of an interdisciplinary research alliance, at the intersection of Engineering and Education Ethnography, learned through ongoing dialogues among members (2012–2014). The analyses make visible how, and for what purpose(s), this interdisciplinary research alliance was constructed, including the theoretical/conceptual roots of perspectives guiding the members of the alliance, and how these orienting perspectives served as anchors for exploring points where differences in understandings became visible to members. By tracing responses that members had to differences in understandings, we examine how the differences became resources for members to (re)examine their initial assumptions and understandings of particular teaching–learning processes, and how these differences supported members, individually and collectively, in extending and (re)formulating their understandings of the relationship between and among teaching and learning processes that constituted no distance education processes. Through the presentation of three telling cases, we make visible how the dialogues led to different levels of ethnographic analysis (cases 1 and 2). Each was undertaken to develop an understanding of what counted as the no distance education process, both at the design and institutional level across national institutions as well as in the course across times and events. The third telling case explores transformations in understanding particular aspects of teaching–learning relationships that the members reported were related to the ongoing dialogues and ethnographic research.     

Viscoelastic effects on electrokinetic particle focusing in a constricted microchannel

Focusing suspended particles in a fluid into a single file is often necessary prior to continuous-flow detection, analysis, and separation. Electrokinetic particle focusing has been demonstrated in constricted microchannels by the use of the constriction-induced dielectrophoresis. However, previous studies on this subject have been limited to Newtonian fluids only. We report in this paper an experimental investigation of the viscoelastic effects on electrokinetic particle focusing in non-Newtonian polyethylene oxide solutions through a constricted microchannel. The width of the focused particle stream is found NOT to decrease with the increase in DC electric field, which is different from that in Newtonian fluids. Moreover, particle aggregations are observed at relatively high electric fields to first form inside the constriction. They can then either move forward and exit the constriction in an explosive mode or roll back to the constriction entrance for further accumulations. These unexpected phenomena are distinct from the findings in our earlier paper [Lu et al., Biomicrofluidics 8, 021802 (2014)], where particles are observed to oscillate inside the constriction and not to pass through until a chain of sufficient length is formed. They are speculated to be a consequence of the fluid viscoelasticity effects.