Measurement plays a vital role in the creation of markets, one that hinges on efficiencies gained via the universal availability of precise and accurate information on product quantity and quality. Fulfilling the potential of these ideals requires close attention to measurement and the role of...

Huge resources are invested in metrology and standards in the natural sciences, engineering, and across a wide range of commercial technologies. Significant positive returns of human, social, environmental, and economic value on these investments have been sustained for decades. Proven methods...

Rasch’s unidimensional models for measurement show how to connect object measures (e.g., reader abilities), measurement mechanisms (e.g., machine-generated cloze reading items), and observational outcomes (e.g., counts correct on reading instruments). Substantive theory shows what...

Decades of research in education, psychology, sociology, and health care have established that investments in human, social, and natural capital can be measured in metrics as objective as measures of time, commodities, or manufactured products. When universally uniform and accessible forms of...

In 1979, the Danish mathematician Georg Rasch recounted a 1959 visit with his former teacher, and later economics Nobel Prize winner, Ragnar Frisch. At this time, Frisch prompted Rasch to formalize his work in a separability theorem. Previously unnoted is that Frisch's close colleague, Irving...

Measurement quality is a fundamental factor in determining the cost of transactions within organizations and markets. A huge gulf separates the meaningfulness and precision of business metrics as currently achieved from the quality that has been routinely obtained for decades in research and in...

The vital roles of common languages, metrics, and standards in team-based innovation are well established. The historical success of science has depended extensively on mathematically rigorous, theoretically explained, experimentally evaluated, and socially distributed communications networks...

Markedly diverse viewpoints are in play in many varied contexts, from science to the classroom to the marketplace. Perhaps surprisingly, both divergent dissonances and convergent harmonies are routinely found together in productive real-world systems. The value of generalizable assessment...

Objectives: Theory development enables the modeling of relationships in physical functioning (PF), demonstrating the practical value of measurement theory relative to predictive control of the modeled parameters. Methods. Predictive theories provide highly practical foundations for efficient...

Of the four major forms of capital (human, social, natural, and manufactured/property), three lack systems of standardized, uniform measuring units. Though "you manage what you measure" is a common mantra, myriad incommensurable surveys, tests, and ratings do not provide the quality of...