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Educational achievement, personality, and behavior: assessment, factor structure and implications for theory and
Tim W Gaffney1, Cassandra Perryman
1Assessment Development and Administration Division, California Department of Education, Sacramento, CA 95814-5901, USA. tgaffney@cde.ca.gov
Journal of Applied Measurement
|July 19, 2012
Summary
Educational achievement tests show a strong general factor, indicating unidimensionality, unlike personality and behavioral assessments. This finding impacts educational inferences and school accountability reforms.
Area of Science:
- Psychometrics
- Educational Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Factor structure of educational achievement tests is debated.
- Two models, psychometric g and mutualism, explain cognitive ability.
- Understanding test structure is crucial for educational assessment.
Purpose of the Study:
- Examine evidence for factor structure of educational achievement tests.
- Compare educational tests to behavioral and personality assessments.
- Investigate underlying processes of dimensionality.
Main Methods:
- Bi-factor analysis of standardized educational achievement tests.
- Comparison with behavioral and personality assessments.
- Review of theoretical models of cognitive ability.
Main Results:
- Educational achievement tests demonstrated a dominant general factor.
- Greater unidimensionality was observed in achievement tests compared to others.
- A strong, uniformly positive manifold was found in achievement tests.
Conclusions:
- Achievement tests' structure supports unidimensionality more than personality/behavioral tests.
- Findings have implications for educational inferences and accountability.
- Structural differences inform theoretical perspectives on cognitive ability.
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