본문 바로가기
  • Home

A Rasch analysis of a high school Korean achievement test

Jeong-Ae Lee 1 Shim Jae-woo 1

1전북대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The main objectives of this study were to investigate item reliability, subject ability, and item fit indexes based on Rasch modeling. In particular, this study analyzed a Korean mid-term test results collected from 179 second year high school students, who attended a local high school in a mid-sized Korean city. The following were observed by the application of Winsteps 3.68, which is a software program for Rasch analyses: firstly, the person reliability as well as separation index was low, suggesting that the test itself was not successful in separating students along the ability continuum; secondly, all the test items met Rasch expectations. However, five test items had low levels of discrimination and failed to discriminate high ability students from low ability students. Next, personal ability estimates tended to be higher than item difficulty estimates, indicating that items, in general, were too easy for the students. Only one item was rightly targeted against the highest ability students. Finally, the 13 grammar items were evenly distributed in the hierarchy of item difficulties, forming four groups of items that were categorized as 'the most difficult items', 'the second most difficulty items', 'the third most difficult items' and 'the fourth most difficult items'. However, it was found that reading proficiency items were located only in 'the third most difficult' and 'the fourth most difficult' groups of items. In fact, all of those reading proficiency items were from the text covered in the textbook and most of those reading proficiency items consisted of items that asked students to find simple facts based on the text. One of the implications of this study is that test designers, including in-service teachers themselves, should reflect on the test-making practices so that valid and reliable items are used in achievement tests.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.