Equating error is usually small relative to the magnitude of measurement error, but it could be one of the major sources of error contributing to mean scores of large groups in educational measurement, such as the year-to-year state mean score fluctuations. Though testing programs may routinely calculate the standard error of equating (SEE), the…

This paper presents a study on known approaches for quality assurance of educational test and test items. On its basis a comprehensive approach to the quality assurance of online educational testing is proposed to address the needs of all stakeholders (authors of online tests, teachers, students, experts, quality managers, etc.). According to the…

Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient between item g and test score X, known as item-test or item-total correlation ("Rit"), and item-rest correlation ("Rir") are two of the most used classical estimators for item discrimination power (IDP). Both "Rit" and "Rir" underestimate IDP caused by the…

Kelley's Discrimination Index (DI) is a simple and robust, classical non-parametric short-cut to estimate the item discrimination power (IDP) in the practical educational settings. Unlike item-total correlation, DI can reach the ultimate values of +1 and -1, and it is stable against the outliers. Because of the computational easiness, DI is…

Benefiting from item preknowledge (e.g., McLeod, Lewis, & Thissen, 2003) is a major type of fraudulent behavior during educational assessments. This paper suggests a new statistic that can be used for detecting the examinees who may have benefitted from item preknowledge using their response times. The statistic quantifies the difference in…

Large amounts of missing data could distort item parameter estimation and lead to biased ability estimates in educational assessments. Therefore, missing responses should be handled properly before estimating any parameters. In this study, two Monte Carlo simulation studies were conducted to compare the performance of four methods in handling…

The Mantel-Haenszel delta difference (MH D-DIF) and the standardized proportion difference (STD P-DIF) are two observed-score methods that have been used to assess differential item functioning (DIF) at Educational Testing Service since the early 1990s. Latentvariable approaches to assessing measurement invariance at the item level have been…

Item analysis is essential in improving items which will be used again in later tests; it can also be used to eliminate misleading items in a test. The study focused on item and test quality and explored the relationship between difficulty index (p-value) and discrimination index (DI) with distractor efficiency (DE). The study was conducted among…

The purpose of this study was to examine the difference in student success by retained students who participate in the Hamblen County (Tennessee) Credit Recovery Program [HCCRP] in the year prior and following their participation. HCCRP is an alternative intervention for students who have been retained in the middle grades of Hamblen County School…

Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis is a key component in the evaluation of the fairness and validity of educational tests. Although it is often assumed that refinement of the matching criterion always provides more accurate DIF results, the actual situation proves to be more complex. To explore the effectiveness of refinement, we…

The article discusses the methodological approach to the technology of the educational experiment performance, the ways of the research data processing by means of research methods and methods of mathematical statistics. The article shows the integrated use of some effective approaches to the training of the students majoring in…

The Mantel-Haenszel (MH) procedure is commonly used to detect items that function differentially for groups of examinees from various demographic and linguistic backgrounds--for example, in international assessments. As in some other DIF methods, the total score is used to match examinees on ability. In thin matching, each of the total score…

The synthetic function is a weighted average of the identity (the linking function for forms that are known to be completely parallel) and a traditional equating method. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the benefits of the synthetic function on small-sample equating using various real data sets gathered from different…

In this technical report, we present the results of a reliability study of the third-grade multiple choice reading comprehension measures available on the easyCBM learning system conducted in the spring of 2011. Analyses include split-half reliability, alternate form reliability, person and item reliability as derived from Rasch analysis,…

In this technical report, we present the results of a reliability study of the fifth-grade multiple choice reading comprehension measures available on the easyCBM learning system conducted in the spring of 2011. Analyses include split-half reliability, alternate form reliability, person and item reliability as derived from Rasch analysis,…