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Major Uses of Item Analysis Item Analysis Reports Item Analysis Response Patterns Basic Item Analysis Statistics Interpretation of Basic Statistics Other Item Statistics Summary Data Report Options Item Analysis Guidelines
Item 10 of 125. The correct option is 5. Item Response Pattern 1 2 3 4 5 Omit Error Total 8 0 1 19 0 0 30 n 2 Upper 27% 27 0 3 63 0 0 100 %7 20 3 3 23 0 0 52 n 3 Middle 46% 38 6 6 44 0 0 100 %6 5 8 2 9 0 0 30 n 6 Lower 27% 0 101 % 20 17 27 7 30 0 0 112 n 11 33 11 6 51 0 Total % 10% 29% 11% 5% 46% 0% 0% 100%
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Item analysis provides the item writer with a record of student reaction to items. It gives us little information about the appropriateness of an item for a course of instruction. The appropriateness or content validity of an item must be determined by comparing the content of the item with the instructional objectives. [ Top ]
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Summary Data
The item analysis data are summarized on the last page of the item analysis report. The distribution of item difficulty indices is a tabulation showing the number and percentage of items whose difficulties are in each of ten categories, ranging from a very easy category (00-10) to a very difficult category (91-100). The distribution of discrimination indices is tabulated in the same manner, except that a category is included for negatively discriminating items.
The mean item difficulty is determined by adding all of the item difficulty indices and dividing the total by the number of items. The mean item discrimination is determined in a similar manner. Test reliability, estimated by the Kuder-Richardson formula number 20, is given. If the test is speeded, that is, if some of the students did not have time to consider each test item, then the reliability estimate may be spuriously high. The final test statistic is the standard error of measurement. This statistic is a common device for interpreting the absolute accuracy of the test scores. The size of the standard error of measurement depends on the standard deviation of the test scores as well as on the estimated reliability of the test. Occasionally, a test writer may wish to omit certain items from the analysis although these items were included in the test as it was administered. Such items may be omitted by leaving them blank on the test key. The statistics for these items will be omitted from the Summary Data. [ Top ]
Report Options
A number of report options are available for item analysis data. The long-form item analysis report contains three items per page. A standard-form item analysis report is available where data on each item is summarized on one line. A sample report is shown below. ITEM ANALYSIS Test 4 125 Items 49 Students Percentages: Upper 27% - Middle - Lower 27% Item Key 1 2 3 4 5 Omit Error Diff Disc 1 2 15-22-31 69-57-38 08-17-15 00-04-00 08-00-15 0-0-0 0-0-0 45 31 2 3 00-26-15 00-00-00 92-65-62 00-04-08 08-04-15 0-0-0 0-0-0 29 31 The standard form shows the item number, key (number of the correct option), the percentage of the upper, middle, and lower groups who selected each option, omitted the item or erred, the index of difficulty, and the index of discrimination. For example, in item 1 above, option 2 was the correct answer and it was selected by 69% of the upper group, 57% of the middle group and 38% of the lower group. The index of difficulty, based on the total group, was 45 and the index of discrimination was 31. [ Top ]
Item analysis is a completely futile process unless the results help instructors improve their classroom practices and item writers improve their tests. Let us suggest a number of points of departure in the application of item analysis data. 1. Item analysis gives necessary but not sufficient information concerning the appropriateness of an item as a measure of intended outcomes of instruction. An item may perform beautifully with respect to item analysis statistics and yet be quite irrelevant to the instruction whose results it was intended to measure. A most common error is to teach for behavioral objectives such as analysis of data or situations, ability to discover trends, ability to infer meaning, etc., and then to construct an objective test measuring mainly recognition of facts. Clearly, the objectives of instruction must be kept in mind when selecting test items. 2. An item must be of appropriate difficulty for the students to whom it is administered. If possible, items should have indices of difficulty no less than 20 and no greater than 80. It is desirable to have most items in the 30 to 50 range of difficulty. Very hard or very easy items contribute little to the discriminating power of a test. 3. An item should discriminate between upper and lower groups. These groups are usually based on total test score but they could be based on some other criterion such as gradepoint average, scores on other tests, etc. Sometimes an item will discriminate negatively, that is, a larger proportion of the lower group than of the upper group selected the correct option. This often means that the students in the upper group were misled by an ambiguity that the students in the lower group, and the item writer, failed to discover. Such an item should be revised or discarded. 4. All of the incorrect options, or distracters, should actually be distracting. Preferably, each distracter should be selected by a greater proportion of the lower group than of the upper group. If, in a five-option multiple-choice item, only one distracter is effective, the item is, for all practical purposes, a two-option item. Existence of five options does not automatically guarantee that the item will operate as a five-choice item. [ Top ]
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