Differential Item Functioning: 161 (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences) - Softcover

Reseña del editor

Differential Item Functioning, Second Edition is a revision of the 1983 title Test Item Bias. In the past 23 years, differential item performance has assumed a level of attention unimagined in the early 1980s. Then, only a few tests and assessment programs attended to "item bias," while doing so is now a mandatory step in any responsible assessment program. Also, technical advances, such as the widespread use of item response theory, have pushed the field of differential performance to levels of technical sophistication far beyond what was practiced years ago.

This new edition presents an up-to-date description of DIF; describes varying procedures for addressing DIF in practical testing contexts; presents useful examples and studies of DIF that readers may employ as a guide in their own DIF work; and briefly describes relevant features of major statistical packages that can be employed in DIF analysis (e.g., SPSS, SAS, M+, Minitab, and Systat).

This text is ideal for the measurement professional or advanced student who deals with educational or psychological assessment. Readers need only have a preliminary background in tests and measurement, including some beginning statistics and elementary algebra, in order to find this volume useful.

Biografía del autor

Dr. Steven J. Osterlind is Professor of Measurement and Statistics and Director of Educational Psychology program, University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Osterlind’s expertise is in psychological assessment, including tests and measurement, statistics, psychometric methods and test development. He received his doctoral degree in 1976 in Educational Psychology (Measurement & Statistics) from the University of Southern California. In 1979, he was an American Scholar’s Fellow at Yale University. At the University of Missouri he teaches graduate-level courses in multivariate statistics, analysis of variance, regression, general linear modeling, and psychometric methods. Additionally, he teaches seminar courses on specialized topics, including Item Response Theory and Computer Applications of Testing. He has worked on numerous national testing programs, including serving as statistician for NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress). In licensing and certification, he has worked with dozens of professional associations and organizations on their assessment programs. Dr. Osterlind has authored five books, the most recent of which is a major textbook titled Modern Measurement: Theory, Principles, and Application of Mental Appraisal; and, he has written more than 60 articles, book chapters, and other research reports in assessment. Additionally, he has authored more than 20 tests. He is principle author of College Basic Academic Subjects Examination (C-BASE), a test of collegiate achievement test currently adopted by more than 100 universities across the nation.