About EMS
Educational Measurement Solutions provides specialist expertise in educational measurement. A list of some of our recent projects are included below.
Recent projects
Strengthened Australian Qualifications Framework
- 2010. As part of a consortium led by Victoria University, EMS conducted research to empirically test the proposed strengthened Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). A public report containing an overview of the research conducted is now available on the AQF website.
Malaysian Examination Syndicate Online Item Bank
- Providing psychometric support and advice in the development of an online item bank at the Malaysian Examination Syndicate, including training of Ministry of Education staff in Item Response Theory (2008, 2009).
National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)
- 2010. Development and implementation of a statistical procedure to identify potential test administration anomalies in NAPLAN data for the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority.
- 2008. Data analysis and reporting for the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) for Australian schools and students that elected for Curriculum Corporation to be their test administration authority (approximately 4000 students). Work involved data processing according to nationally agreed protocols and the production of files for student and school reports.
Northern Territory Multilevel Assessment Program
- Data analysis and reporting for the Northern Territory statewide testing program - Multilevel Assessment Program (MAP), 2004 to 2007. Work involved processing student test results, item response analysis, student and school report production, and benchmarking computation. In 2008, EMS assisted in equating MAP results to NAPLAN.
National Assessment Program – Science Literacy
- Psychometric work in relation to the National Assessment Program: Science Literacy (NAP-SL 2006 and 2009), including sampling, equating, test design, scaling of item responses, and the preparation of a report of findings and a database of results. Public reports are available on the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs website.
Research into online assessment
- Analysis of the impact of online assessment on student results for Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). The work involved the analyses of the relationships between computer competency and online assessments in English, Mathematics and Accounting.
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
- Assisted in the preparation of SPSS data cleaning syntax routines for the PISA 2009 Field Trial (Australian Council for Educational Research, 2008).
- Contribution to the OECD PISA Problem Solving Report, 2003.
Psychometric analysis of assessment materials
- Psychometric analysis of assessment objects (The Learning Federation, 2008 and 2009).
Workshops
Workshops on item response modelling and consultancies to support development of psychometric expertise have included:
- Consultancy work at UNESCO, International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris on the analysis of data using item response modelling.
- Workshops at the Max Planck Institute Summer School, Berlin, July, 2004, on item response modelling and the use of plausible values.
- Workshops at the Teacher Training Division, Ministry of Education, Malaysia, regarding training in Item Response Theory, February, 2004.
- Hong Kong Examination Authority workshops, 2003-2004.
- ConQuest training, Taiwan, 2007.