dscore 1.9.0

Overview

This is a major update of the dscore package featuring:

Major issues

BREAKING CHANGE: On May 31, 2024 we detected a long-time error in the calculation of the D-score resulting from an incorrect scale factor that led us to believe that item characteristic curves are steeper than the actually are. The impact of the error on the result is as follows: 1) There is no effect on the difficulty estimates of the Rasch models, 2) The D-score estimates are slightly altered but changes are small, 3) The references are largely unaffected and need not to be redone, 4) The estimates of the SEMs can differ substantially, so inferences based on the SEMs should be re-evaluated, 5) When there were changes in the analyses, the results in the newer method look smoother and are preferred. The correction appeared in the development version dscore 1.8.8, and is now incorporated into release dscore 1.9.0. For backward compatibility to dscore 1.8.7 and earlier, use the argument algorithm = "1.8.7" in calls to the dscore() function.

BREAKING CHANGE: dscore_posterior() now returns a data.frame with column names that indicate the quadrature point. This was an unnamed matrix. Code that expects a matrix as the return of dscore_posterior() may need to be adapted.

NEW DEFAULT KEY: Adds a new reference "preliminary_standards" calculated from selected subsample of the GSED Phase 1 data, and makes these the default in this release. The reference is a temporary stand-in for a future norm-based standard for normal early child development. This reference replaces the temporary reference "phase1_healthy" that was introduced in dscore 1.8.7. Compared to the "phase1" reference, the "preliminary_standards" reference has the following differences: 1) D-score estimation uses the new model 20240601 with correct scale factor, 2) Calculates the D-score for SF and LF separately (not combined), 3) Tunes the GAMSLSS model to fit the healthy subsample. The "phase1_healthy" object is removed.

Major changes

Minor changes

dscore 1.8.0

Major changes

Minor changes

dscore 1.7.0

Major issue

Major changes

Minor changes

dscore 1.6.0

Major changes

Minor changes

dscore 1.5.0

Major changes

Minor changes

dscore 1.4.0

Major changes

Minor changes

dscore 1.3.0

dscore 1.2.0

dscore 1.1.0

dscore 1.0.0