Project Activities
This project has three core aims. First, the project team will collect and harmonize a large volume of psychometrics data resources with an emphasis on data that speak to pressing problems in educational measurement such as item response data collected longitudinally, and data collected in experimental settings. Second, the project team will build and test a website to share the data. The website will make it easy for a user to identify and download large quantities of data that allow for subsequent research in educational measurement. Third, the project team will conduct a variety of activities to publicize this resource.
User Testing: The project team will conduct user testing as a part of the construction of the IRW. In a design stage, the project team will conduct interviews to assess the needs of targeted users; the IRW will then be designed with these requirements in mind. User testing will then be conducted to assess how well early versions of the IRW meet user needs; the project team will subsequently iterate based on this early feedback.
Use in Applied Education Research: Future education research will be able to take advantage of the rich data resources of the IRW. This will help to foster development of a more data-rich psychometrics. For example, methodological papers will be able to rapidly demonstrate the performance of a given method in a much broader range of datasets. The IRW will also extend the capacity to do cutting-edge psychometrics research to a broader research community by allowing interested researchers easy access to substantial quantities of harmonized data, something that has been heretofore unavailable.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
Products: The project will lead to the construction of a repository of harmonized item response datasets, the Item Response Warehouse (IRW). This repository will contain data of pressing interest to contemporary problems in psychometrics and education research and will be publicly available via a website that offers both the opportunity for users to identify data of interest and the capacity to then download such data. Alongside the back-end database and the front-end website, this project will also allow for completion of relevant APIs and associated documentation to ensure that data from the IRW can be readily used in standard psychometric software packages. The project team will also disseminate information about this project via various webinars and begin to write research papers demonstrating how large volumes of data can be used to improve methodological research in educational measurement. The project team will endeavor to ensure that the members of relevant professional organizations are aware of the IRW via trainings and presentation at annual meetings. Finally, the project team will host a paper competition meant to spur use of the IRW's data resources.
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigator: Frank, Michael
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
