We propose an incentive pay scheme for educators that links educator compensation to the ranks of their students within appropriately defined comparison sets. Because this scheme employs only ordinal information, it allows education authorities to employ new assessments at each testing date without ever having to equate various assessment forms. Thus, our scheme mitigates incentives for teacher...

This paper shows the impact of differential discrimination on the results of vertical equating when the Rasch model is applied. It is shown that where there is differential discrimination, relevant items contribute information, for the purpose of vertical equating, that contains systematic error. The impact of differential item discrimination on vertical equating is examined from a theoretical ...

The longitudinal measurement of ability growth requires that the measures that are taken at the various time points be obtained using the same yardstick. Tests given for this purpose, therefore, need to be equated. The popular practice still in use for the purpose of equating tests, is the grade-equivalent. This paper compares the observation of children's growth in reading using grade-equivale...

despite all advances, treatment of esophageal carcinoma is still unsatisfactory. currently the standard non-surgical treatment of esophageal cancer is concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy (chemoradiation), with results comparable to best surgical series. a few years ago, we started a chemoradiation protocol for the cancer of esophagus as a curative treatment, of which we present the prelimi...