This dissertation for the University of Oregon examined the relationship between varying degrees of technology-enhancements applied in a mathematics performance task on the outcome of student cognitive engagement.

In this CASEL Measuring SEL blog, James Soland shares how work with Santa Ana Unified School District led to new insights on how item response times and test metadata may provide insight into student SEL.

When computer-based tests are used, disengagement can be detected through occurrences of rapid-guessing behavior. This empirical study investigated the impact of a new effort monitoring feature that can detect rapid guessing, as it occurs, and notify proctors that a test taker has become disengaged.

In this study, we condition results from a variety of detection methods used to identify disengaged survey responses on response times. We then show how this conditional approach may be useful in identifying where to set response time thresholds for survey items, as well as in avoiding misclassification when using other detection methods.

This paper briefly discusses the trade-offs involved in making such a transition, and then focuses on a relatively unexplored benefit of computer-based tests – the control of construct-irrelevant factors that can threaten test score validity.

In this study, we examine whether behaviors indicative of academic disengagement like chronic absenteeism and course failures are related to behaviors indicative of test disengagement like rapidly guessing on items.

Achievement gaps are a metric of fundamental importance to U.S. practice and policy. Gap estimates are often used to measure the effectiveness and fairness of the education system at a given point in time, over the course of decades, and as children progress through school.