ITEM ANALYSIS A systematic method of using statistical techniques to evaluate the quality of test items, particularly objective format

items Made simple without the use of: i. ii. Statistical software Specialists

3 typical item analysis is recommended (Hills, 1981): i. ii. iii. Difficulty index (to determine the levels of difficulty of each item) Discrimination index (to determine if each item is behaving the way it should be) Distractor analysis (to determine the weak distractors)

Benefits of item analysis: a. to know the quality of items used in a test i. ii. b. Improving reliability of a test Development of question bank

to determine effectiveness of teaching i. Good indicators show that a topic has been taught effectively

Difficulty Index proportion of students answering each question correctly TOTAL STUDENTS ANSWERING CORRECTLY TOTAL STUDENTS ANSWERING THE QUESTION 0.6 OR MULTIPLY BY 100 = 60% can be stated in percentages or decimals when 0.0 or 0% ---- no student answered correctly 30 50

when 1.0 or 100% ---- all students answered correctly

RECOMMENDATION: KEEP ITEMS WITH DIFFICULTY INDEX BETWEEN 0.50 (50%) 0.80 (80%)

Discriminatory Index runs in percentages if more students from high scorers answer an item correctly than those students from low scorers, the discriminatory index is close to 100%. if all students from high scorers and low scorers answer an item correctly, the discriminatory index is 0 if all students from high scorers and low scorers answer an item incorrectly, the discriminatory index is 0 if more students from low scorers answer an item correctly than those students from high scorers, the discriminatory index is a negative number for teacher constructed test, 20% is reasonable