Scribd
Upload
1K views

Item Analysis

1. The document discusses how to analyze test items through calculating the difficulty index and discrimination index after administering an assessment. 2. The difficulty index indicates how many students answered an item correctly, showing if it is too easy or difficult. The discrimination index shows if an item differentiates high- and low-scoring students. 3. An example calculation uses a table to determine that Question 2 had a difficulty index of 0.30 but a problematic negative discrimination index of -0.6, meaning it should be reviewed since low-scoring students answered it correctly more often.

Uploaded by

api-262572717
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
1K views

Item Analysis

1. The document discusses how to analyze test items through calculating the difficulty index and discrimination index after administering an assessment. 2. The difficulty index indicates how many students answered an item correctly, showing if it is too easy or difficult. The discrimination index shows if an item differentiates high- and low-scoring students. 3. An example calculation uses a table to determine that Question 2 had a difficulty index of 0.30 but a problematic negative discrimination index of -0.6, meaning it should be reviewed since low-scoring students answered it correctly more often.

Uploaded by

api-262572717
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 20

ITEM ANALYSIS

By
Dr. Arthur Joseph

Objectives

At the end of this session, participants will


be able to:

Calculate difficulty index

Calculate discrimination index

Analyze test items/questions

Item Analysis

After you create your assessment items and


give your test, you can determine:
1.

Difficulty Index. Whether the items are


appropriate -- not too difficult or not too easy

2.

Discrimination Index. Whether the test


effectively differentiates between students
who do well on the overall test and those who
do not

This table illustrates how many students


selected each answer choice for Questions
#1&#2

Question

#1
#2

0
12*

3
13

24*
3

* Denotes correct
answer.

Difficul
ty
Index

24/30
= 0.80

12/30
= 0.40

Item Analysis
Difficulty Index

For Question #1, we can see that A was not


a very good distractor -- no one selected
that answer.

We can compute the Difficulty Index of


question #1 by dividing the number of
students who choose the correct answer
(24) by the number of total students (30).

D.I. = 24/30 = 0.8

Item Analysis
Difficulty Index

Question # 1 could be regarded as


moderately easy, (80%) of students got it
correct (Difficulty Index = 0.8)

In contrast, Question #2 is much more difficult


Difficulty Index =12/30 =0 .40

Item Analysis

Question #2 -- more students selected an


incorrect answer (B) than selected the
correct answer (A)

This item should be carefully analyzed to


ensure that B is an appropriate distractor.

Item Analysis:
Group of Students
1.

Difficulty index

2.

Discrimination Index

Table 1: Results of Ten Questions on a Quiz.


Questions

Student

Total
Score (%)

Asif

90

Sam

90

Jill

80

Charlie

80

Sonya

70

Ruben

60

Clay

60

Kelley

50

Justin

50

Tonya

40

Item Analysis:
Group of Students

"1"

indicates the answer was correct

"0" indicates it was incorrect

Item Analysis :Group of students

(see

Table 1)

Calculation of :
(a) Difficulty Index

(b) Discrimination Index

Steps
1.Arranged

student scores from highest to lowest with the


highest overall scores at the top

2.Count

the number of students in the upper and lower group


who got each item correct. For Question #1, there were 4
students in the top half who got it correct, and 4 students in
the bottom half

3.Determine

the Difficulty Index by dividing the number who got


it correct by the total number of students. For Question #1,
this would be 8/10 or D.I = 0.80

Item Analysis
Discrimination Index refers to how well an
assessment differentiates between high and low
scorers.
4. Determine the Discrimination Index by:

subtracting the number of students in the lower group who got


the item correct from the number of students in the upper group
who got the item correct.

Then, divide by the number of students in each group (in this


case, there are five in each group). For Question #1, that means
you would subtract 4 from 4, and divide by 5, which results in a
Discrimination Index of 0.

The answers for Questions # 1 are provided in Table 2.

Table 2:

Item

Answers for Questions 1-3

# Correct # Correct
Difficulty Discrimination
(Upper
(Lower
Index
Index
group)
group)

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

.80

Calculation of Discrimination
Index
Question?

Calculate and interpret the Discrimination


Indices for Questions 2 and 3?

Table 2:

Item

Answers for Questions 1-3

# Correct # Correct
Difficulty Discrimination
(Upper
(Lower
Index
Index
group)
group)

Question 1

.80

Question 2

.30

-0.6

Question 3

.60

0.8

Item Analysis
Discrimination Index - interpretation
You

should expect that the high-performing students

would select the correct answer for each question


more often than the low-performing students.

Item Analysis
Discrimination Index--- Interpretation
1. If this is true, then the assessment is said to have a
positive discrimination index (between 0 and 1) -indicating that students who received a high total score
chose the correct answer for a specific item more often
than the students who had a lower overall score.
2. The higher the discrimination index the higher the
reliability of the test item(i.e. the internal consistency).
3. A discrimination index of 0.30 is regarded as the
minimal acceptable level.

Item Analysis
Discrimination Index
4. If, however, you find that more of the low-performing
students got a specific item correct, then the item has
a negative discrimination index (between -1 and
0).
5. Items that all students get right or wrong yield no
discrimination.
6. A negative discrimination index indicates that the
question penalizes the more knowledgeable students
and needs to be revised or rejected.

Item Analysis
Discrimination Index
Now that we have the table filled in, what does it mean?

We see that Question #2 had a difficulty index of .30


(meaning it was quite difficult), and it also had a negative
discrimination index of -0.6 (meaning that the lowperforming students were more likely to get this item correct).
This question should be carefully analyzed, and probably
deleted or changed.
Our "best" overall question is Question 3, which had a moderate
difficulty level (.60), and discriminated index of (0.8).

Thank You
The End

You might also like