Assessment of Learning 2

Lucille C. Abunales, PhD

Instructor

ITEM ANALYSIS & VALIDATION 

REVIEW:
STEPS IN PLANNING FOR A TEST

Steps in Classroom Test Construction

 Determine the purpose of the test
 Specify the instructional objectives
 Prepare the table of specifications 
 Determine the item format, number of test items, and difficulty level of
the test
 Write test items that match the objectives
 Try-out and validation
 Edit, revise and finalize test items
 Administer the test
TRY-OUT PHASE
Teacher administers the draft test to a group of students

ITEM ANALYSIS PHASE

Teacher analyses each test item in terms of its ability to discriminate


those who know and those who do not know.
 Teacher analyses each item’s index of difficulty and index of
discrimination
ITEM REVISION PHASE

 Teacher replaces, revises and modifies the test item

 STEPS IN ITEM ANALYSIS

  Arrange the papers from highest to lowest
 Get 27% of the high scores and 27% of the low scores.
 Get 27% of the high scores and 27% of the low scores.
 Example: If there are 50 students who took the test, then get the top
14 students and the lowest 14 students 
 Compute: 27% of 50 = 0.27 x 50 = 13.5 or 14
 Count the number of students from the higher group and the lower group
who answered each item correctly.
 Count the number of students from the higher group and the lower group
who answered each item correctly.
Example: In item no. 1:
 there are 10 out of the 14 students in the upper 27% (upper group)
who answered the test item correctly.
 There are 5 out of the 14 students in the lower 27% (lower group)
who answered the test item correctly. 
 Estimate the index of difficulty of each item (% of students who got
the item correctly.)
 Estimate the index of discrimination (difference between the
number of students in the upper and lower group who got the item
right)
 Evaluate the effectiveness of the distracters in each item
(attractiveness of the incorrect answer.)

ITEM DIFFICULTY
Index of Difficulty = nH + nL
N
Where:

nH = number of students in the upper group who answered the item correctly

nL = number of students in the lower group who answered the item correctly

N = total number of students in both high and low groups

EXAMPLE: 
Consider a multiple choice test in which the following data were obtained:
ITEM OPTIONS GROUP
 

1 A B* C D
*
  0 10 3 1 Upper 27%
  0 5 8 1 Lower  Th
27% ere
are
10 out of the 14 students in the upper 27% (upper group) who
answered the test item correctly.  Therefore, nH = 10
 There are 5 out of the 14 students in the lower 27% (lower group) who
answered the test item correctly. So, nL = 5
  N = 28
In Summary :

The item analysis provides the following information:

 The difficulty of the item

 The discriminating power of the item
 The effectiveness of each alternative
Benefits derived from Item Analysis:
 It provides useful information for class discussion of the test
 It provides data which helps students improve their learning
 It provides insights and skills that lead to the preparation of better tests in
the future.