dexter: An R Package to Manage and Analyze Test Data

Abstract

In this study, we present a package for R that is intended as a professional tool for the management and analysis of data from educational tests and useful both in high-stakes assessment programs and survey research. Focused on psychometric models based on the sum score as the scoring rule and having sufficient statistics for their parameters, dexter fully exploits the many theoretical and practical advantages of this choice: lack of unnecessary assumptions, stable and fast estimation, and powerful and sensible diagnostic techniques. It includes an easy to use data management system tailored to the structure of test data and compatible with the current paradigm of tidy data. Companion packages currently include a graphical user interface and support for multi-stage testing.