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| Standardized Test Analysis× | Differential Item Functioning in Educational Testing× | |
|---|---|---|
| Field | Education | Education |
| Family | Latent structure | Latent structure |
| Year of origin≠ | 2014 | 1993 |
| Originator≠ | Educational measurement profession (AERA/APA/NCME Standards; Lord; Cronbach) | Educational measurement / test-fairness tradition (Holland, Wainer, Dorans, Thissen) |
| Type≠ | Psychometric evaluation of items, reliability, validity, and fairness of standardized tests | Test-fairness analysis detecting items that function differently across groups |
| Seminal source≠ | American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education. (2014). Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. AERA. ISBN: 9780935302356 | Holland, P. W., & Wainer, H. (Eds.). (1993). Differential Item Functioning. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN: 9780805809725 |
| Aliases | Standardized Testing Analysis, Test Score Analysis, Item and Test Analysis, Educational Test Psychometrics | Educational DIF Analysis, Item Bias Detection in Tests, Test Fairness DIF, Mantel-Haenszel DIF |
| Related≠ | 3 | 4 |
| Summary≠ | Standardized test analysis is the body of psychometric methods used to evaluate and score standardized educational tests: analyzing how items perform, estimating reliability and the standard error of measurement, scaling scores via classical or item response theory, and assembling validity and fairness evidence. Governed by the professional Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing and rooted in test theory synthesized by Lord and others, it is the disciplined work that turns a set of test questions into defensible scores carrying meaning, precision, and fairness. | Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis is the central statistical tool for evaluating the fairness of test items in education. An item shows DIF when examinees of equal ability but different group membership — for example by gender, race/ethnicity, or language background — have unequal probabilities of answering it correctly. By conditioning on ability before comparing groups, DIF analysis separates genuine item bias from real group differences in proficiency, and flags items for expert review before they affect high-stakes decisions. |
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