As the field of chemistry education moves toward greater inclusion and increased participation by underrepresented minorities, standards for investigating the differential impacts and outcomes of learning environments have to be considered. While quantitative methods may not be capable of generating the in-depth nuances of qualitative methods, they can provide meaningful insights when applied at the group level. Thus, when we conduct quantitative studies in which we aim to learn about the similarities or differences of groups within the same learning environment, we must raise our standards of measurement and safeguard against threats to the validity of inferences that might favor one group over another. One way to provide evidence that group comparisons are supported in a quantitative study is by conducting measurement invariance testing. In this manuscript, we explain the basic concepts of measurement invariance testing within a confirmatory factor analysis framework with examples and a step-by-step tutorial. Each of these steps is an opportunity to safeguard against interpretation of group differences that may be artifacts of the assessment instrument functioning rather than true differences between groups. Reflecting on and safeguarding against threats to the validity of the inferences we can draw from group comparisons will aid in providing more accurate information that can be used to transform our chemistry classrooms into more socially inclusive environments. To catalyze this effort, we provide code in the ESI for two different software packages (R and Mplus) so that interested readers can learn to use these methods with the simulated data provided and then apply the methods to their own data. Finally, we present implications and a summary table for researchers, practitioners, journal editors, and reviewers as a reference when conducting, reading, or reviewing quantitative studies in which group comparisons are performed.

中文翻译：

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通过小组比较解决多样性和包容性：测量不变性测试入门

随着化学教育领域向代表性不足的少数族裔迈进更大的包容性和更多的参与，必须考虑调查学习环境的不同影响和结果的标准。尽管定量方法可能无法产生定性方法的细微差别，但当在小组一级应用时，它们可以提供有意义的见解。因此，当我们进行定量研究时，旨在了解同一学习环境中各群体的相似性或差异性时，我们必须提高测量标准，并防止对推论有效性的威胁。提供证据以证明定量研究支持组比较的一种方法是进行测量不变性测试。在本手稿中，我们将通过示例和分步教程，在验证性因素分析框架中解释测量不变性测试的基本概念。这些步骤中的每一个都是防止对群体差异进行解释的机会，这些差异可能是评估工具运行的产物，而不是群体之间的真正差异。从小组比较中反思并捍卫对推论有效性的威胁，将有助于提供更准确的信息，这些信息可用于将我们的化学教室转变为更具社会包容性的环境。为了促进这一努力，我们在ESI中提供了两个不同软件包（R和Mplus）的代码，以便有兴趣的读者可以学习如何将这些方法与提供的模拟数据一起使用，然后将这些方法应用于自己的数据。最后，我们为研究人员，从业人员，期刊编辑和审阅者提供含义和摘要表，以供进行，阅读或审阅进行小组比较的定量研究时作为参考。