Sensitivity of the RMSD for Detecting Item-Level Misfit in Low-Performing Countries

Autor/inn/en	Tijmstra, Jesper; Bolsinova, Maria; Liaw, Yuan-Ling; Rutkowski, Leslie; Rutkowski, David
Titel	Sensitivity of the RMSD for Detecting Item-Level Misfit in Low-Performing Countries
Quelle	In: Journal of Educational Measurement, 57 (2020) 4, S.566-583 (18 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Tijmstra, Jesper) ORCID (Bolsinova, Maria)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0022-0655
DOI	10.1111/jedm.12263
Schlagwörter	Test Items; Goodness of Fit; Probability; Accuracy; International Assessment; Item Response Theory; Error of Measurement; Item Analysis; Simulation; Achievement Tests; Foreign Countries; Secondary School Students; Program for International Student Assessment + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Test content; Testaufgabe; Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung; Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie; Item-Response-Theorie; Messfehler; Itemanalyse; Simulation program; Simulationsprogramm; Achievement test; Achievement; Testing; Test; Tests; Leistungsbeurteilung; Leistungsüberprüfung; Leistung; Testdurchführung; Testen; Ausland; Sekundarschüler
Abstract	Although the root-mean squared deviation (RMSD) is a popular statistical measure for evaluating country-specific item-level misfit (i.e., differential item functioning [DIF]) in international large-scale assessment, this paper shows that its sensitivity to detect misfit may depend strongly on the proficiency distribution of the considered countries. Specifically, items for which most respondents in a country have a very low (or high) probability of providing a correct answer will rarely be flagged by the RMSD as showing misfit, even if very strong DIF is present. With many international large-scale assessment initiatives moving toward covering a more heterogeneous group of countries, this raises issues for the ability of the RMSD to detect item-level misfit, especially in low-performing countries that are not well-aligned with the overall difficulty level of the test. This may put one at risk of incorrectly assuming measurement invariance to hold, and may also inflate estimated between-country difference in proficiency. The degree to which the RMSD is able to detect DIF in low-performing countries is studied using both an empirical example from PISA 2015 and a simulation study. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01