Vol. 1 Issue 1 - 2024
An item in a test is going to be fair to everybody if students of the same ability perform the same way in any given item. In order to determine whether an item is doing well or not in any test, it is necessary to establish that it is fair to everyone. Teachers in the classroom are more interested in developing items for their students and very few pay attention to whether the items are functioning differentially. Technical issues such as, item difficulty, options functionality, discrimination, and other aspects that make an item standardizes for assessment are not given enough attention. Assessment experts look at these technical issues but most people do not actually look into differential item functioning. The purpose of this study was to identify 2024 WASSCE Economics objective test items that may be functioning differentially among groups of examinees (Gender and school ownership) The researchers adopted descriptive research design of survey type, the target population was all public or private, senior secondary three students offering Economics in Kwara Central Senatorial district. A total of 799 students were involved. Multistage sampling procedure comprising of proportionate sampling technique was employed. Mantel-Haenszel approach was used for the data obtained. Finding shows that: some items functioned differentially with respect to gender and some items functioned differentially with respect to school ownership. It was therefore recommended that, (a) Mantel-Haenszel statistical procedure should be used for DIF analysis of any achievement test in order to realise items that are free from bias towards a particular group. (b)Examining bodies like WAEC should ensure that items to be used to examine candidates are free from any form of DIF by subjecting DIF analysis before administration.
Item-discrimination, Item- difficulty, Options functionality and DIF
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