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Notes on the Rationale of Item Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

M. W. Richardson
M. W. Richardson*
Affiliation:
The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
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Abstract

There is increasing use of item analysis procedures for the improvement of objective examinations. The development of the procedures of item analysis has consisted chiefly of the invention of various forms of an index of association between the test item and the total test score. At least ten indices of item validity have appeared in various articles, which have been chiefly concerned with the relative effectiveness of the indices as devices for the improvement of tests. Since these indices of “item validity” are substitutes for or approximations to the ordinary coefficient of correlation between the item and the total test score, it may be useful to present certain deductions from simple correlational algebra. The present writer is of the opinion that the ingenuity displayed in the invention of new indices has outstripped the critical examination of the logical foundation for item analysis. The subsequent discussion is therefore concerned only with the underlying rationale of item analysis.

Information

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 1936 , pp. 69 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © 1936 The Psychometric Society

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