The present study evaluated the multiple imputation method, a procedure that is similar to the one suggested by Li and Lissitz (2004), and compared the performance of this method with that of the bootstrap method and the delta method in obtaining the standard errors for the estimates of the parameter scale transformation coefficients in item response theory (IRT) equating in the context of the common-item nonequivalent groups design. Two different estimation procedures for the variancecovariance matrix of the IRT item parameter estimates, which were used in both the delta method and the multiple imputation method, were considered: empirical cross-product (XPD) and supplemented expectation maximization (SEM). The results of the analyses with simulated and real data indicate that the multiple imputation method generally produced very similar results to the bootstrap method and the delta method in most of the conditions. The differences between the estimated standard errors obtained by the methods using the XPD matrices and the SEM matrices were very small when the sample size was reasonably large. When the sample size was small, the methods using the XPD matrices appeared to yield slight upward bias for the standard errors of the IRT parameter scale transformation coefficients.

In recent years, school climate has increasingly received research attention. Most studies have focused only on student perceptions of school climate, whereas little is known regarding teachers’ views, and cross-country comparisons are scarce. To advance cross-country understanding of teacher perceptions of school climate, this study used data from the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Study (TALIS) to explore latent classes of teacher perceptions and compared differences between American, Finnish, and Chinese teachers. Latent class analysis revealed that a four-class solution was the most appropriate for each teacher subsample: positive participation and teacher-student relation, positive teacher-student relation, moderate, and low participation for the U.S. and China datasets, while positive teacher-student relation, moderate, negative discipline, and low participation for the Finland dataset. However, measurement invariance across countries was violated. We further investigated the impact of predictors on latent classes of teacher perceptions of school climate. The results revealed varied patterns of cross-cultural differences across countries. Our findings implied that a more reliable and valid scale of teacher perceptions of school climate for cross-country comparison is needed. Tailored interventions are necessary as more than half of teachers perceived moderate and less desired school climate, and educators should consider cultural differences when drawing on experiences from other countries.

Self-efficacy is a vital personal characteristic for student success. However, the challenge of cross-cultural comparisons remains as scalar invariance is hard to be satisfied. Also, it is unclear how to contextually understand student self-efficacy in light of cultural values in different countries. This study implements a novel alignment optimization method to rank the latent means of student self-efficacy of 308,849 students in 11,574 schools across 42 countries and economies that participated in the 2018 Program in International Student Assessment. We then used classification and regression trees to classified countries with differential latent means of student self-efficacy into groups according to Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions theory. The results of the alignment method recovered that Albania, Colombia, and Peru had students with the highest mean self-efficacy, while Slovak Republic, Moscow Region (RUS), and Lebanon had the lowest. Moreover, the CART analysis indicated a low student self-efficacy for countries presenting three features: (1) extremely high power distance; (2) restraint; and (3) collectivism. These findings theoretically highlighted the significance of cultural values in shaping student self-efficacy across countries and practically provided concrete suggestions to educators on which countries to emulate such that student self-efficacy could be promoted and informed educators in secondary education institutes on the international expansion of academic exchanges.