2009 Recipient of the Best Paper by a Graduate Student Award

The Graduate Student Issues Committee (GSIC) would like to congratulate Allison Brown from James Madison University and her co-authors for winning the 2009 Best Paper by a Graduate Student Award. Allison presented this paper at NERA last October. The abstract appears below.

The GSIC would like to thank all of the graduate students who participated in this competition. There were nine submissions and all papers were of high quality. Also a special thanks Katrina Crotts, Elizabeth Stone, and April Zenisky for volunteering their time to rate the papers.

Title: Modeling Motivation Over the Course of a Testing Period: A Mixture Modeling Approach
Authors: Allison R. Brown, Carol L. Barry, S. Jeanne Horst, Sara J. Finney, and Jason P. Kopp (James Madison University)

Abstract: This study was conducted to explore the existence of “types” of test-takers in a low-stakes testing context. Mixture modeling results supported three distinct classes or types of test-takers characterized by different patterns of test-taking motivation over the course of five tests. Classes 1 and 2 had varying levels of motivation whereas Class 3 had a steady level of motivation across the five tests. Additionally, examination of the relationships between class membership and external variables suggested that the classes could be differentiated by achievement goals, personality, and ability. Expectancy-value theory is used to aid in the interpretation of the results. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed with an emphasis on how these results impact assessment practice as the push for educational accountability continues to grow.

NERA Conference 2010: Planned GSIC Events

The GSIC team is busy planning events for graduate students for the upcoming October NERA conference in Rocky Hill, CT. Current plans include two in-conference sessions: one pertaining to measurement issues in practice and another on finishing up graduate school and getting a job. We are also planning on sponsoring several social events for graduate students to network with one another including a graduate student social. More information to come soon!

Current Members

Allison Brown (brownar@jmu.edu) is in her second year of the Quantitative Psychology master’s program at James Madison University. In addition to an interest in applied statistics and measurement, she is interested in issues related to positive psychology, personality, and motivation. Allison is serving as the 2009-2010 chair for the GSIC.

Marisa Cohen (mcohen1@gc.cuny.edu) is in her fourth year of the Educational Psychology Program at CUNY Graduate Center. She is currently working on her dissertation examining the acquisition of science material by elementary school students through the use of imagery interventions. She teaches undergraduate Introductory Psychology courses, as well as Masters level research method courses.

Katrina Crotts (kcrotts@educ.umass.edu) is in her first year of the Research and Evaluation Methods Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research interests include test validity and statistics. She is also very interested in assessment of students with learning disabilities and of students with English as a second language.

Megan France (francemk@jmu.edu) is in her second year of the Assessment and Measurement program at James Madison University. Her substantive research interests include variables related to college students’ relatedness with their peers and the university environment such as university belonging, attachment, and mattering. She is also interested in applications of structural equation modeling. Megan served as the 2008-2009 chair for the GSIC

Tracy Haber (thaber@aaronacad.org)

Daniel Jurich (jurichdp@jmu.edu) is in his first year of the Quantitative Psychology masters program at James Madison University. His research interests include practical applications of item response theory, test equating procedures specifically dealing with the effects of cheaters, and techniques for handling missing data. He is also interested in statistical programming and comparing the effectiveness of currently available software programs.

Melissa Smythe (mksmythe@gmail.com) is a student in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy (Social Foundations of Education) at SUNY Buffalo. Currently, she is working on her dissertation that explores the ways in which at-risk students in an alternative high school construct and narrate their identities. She teaches undergraduate computer fundamentals courses at Buffalo State College and in a past life, was a high school biology teacher for six years.