I got introduced to Fons by Janet Harkness at the first 3MC conference in late June 2008. Svenja Vieluf and I were looking for advice around issues about the comparability of scale scores we started to derive for the first cycle of TALIS for 24 countries. I remember the warm, open
and almost instant responses from him (sometimes in the middle of the night), basically confirming that we all did not know well yet how to judge the statistical outputs and the invariance of score metrics based on (MG)CFA and IRT. I believe this was also when Fons got introduced - and massively interested one might add - in the field of large-scale surveys in education. A decade later, these question still puzzle us and many others. He led an education working paper (#201), a massive contribution to the debate, which only came out about a month before his passing.
I feel very fortunate that I had the opportunity to work with him. I remember the various conversations we had in the expert groups, or while canoeing the canals of Hamburg. And of course his excitement about the move to Australia.
I got introduced to Fons by Janet Harkness at the first 3MC conference in late June 2008. Svenja Vieluf and I were looking for advice around issues about the comparability of scale scores we started to derive for the first cycle of TALIS for 24 countries. I remember the warm, open
and almost instant responses from him (sometimes in the middle of the night), basically confirming that we all did not know well yet how to judge the statistical outputs and the invariance of score metrics based on (MG)CFA and IRT. I believe this was also when Fons got introduced - and massively interested one might add - in the field of large-scale surveys in education. A decade later, these question still puzzle us and many others. He led an education working paper (#201), a massive contribution to the debate, which only came out about a month before his passing.
I feel very fortunate that I had the opportunity to work with him. I remember the various conversations we had in the expert groups, or while canoeing the canals of Hamburg. And of course his excitement about the move to Australia.
