One of the primary goals international large-scale assessments in education is comparison country means student achievement. This article introduces a framework for discussing differential item functioning (DIF) such mean comparisons. We compare three different linking methods: concurrent scaling based on full invariance, partial invariance using RMSD statistic, and robust nonrobust approaches ...

BACKGROUND Aimed to develop a unitary scoring system for the 'Health Behaviour in school-aged Children' (HBSC) symptom checklist that would facilitate cross-national comparisons and interpretation. Rasch measurement analysis and investigation of differential item functioning (DIF) were conducted. METHODS Data were obtained from the 'WHO collaborative study HBSC 2001/2002'. A total of 162,305 ...

Assessment of test bias is important to establish the construct validity of tests. Assessment of differential item functioning (DIF) is an important first step in this process. DIF is present when examinees from different groups have differing probabilities of success on an item, after controlling for overall ability level. Here, we present analysis of DIF in the Cognitive Assessment Screening ...

Ensuring measurement invariance for students with disabilities is critical fair in large-scale testing. Specific learning disability constitutes the largest group among groups. In this study, it was aimed to examine of Turkish Central Exam Secondary Education according whether or not have a specific disability. 994 diagnosed formed focus group, whilst 1,000 without any constituted reference gro...

The validity of large-scale assessments may be compromised, partly due to their content inappropriateness or construct underrepresentation. Few validity studies have focused on such assessments within an argument-based framework. This study analyzed the domain description and evaluation inference of the Ph.D. Entrance Exam of ELT (PEEE) sat by Ph.D. examinees (n = 999) in 2014 in Iran....

In the field of psychometrics, there is increasing interest in the evaluation of fairness in standardized tests. Differential item functioning (DIF) is a phenomenon observed when two groups of respondents have different response patterns. My dissertation work was motivated by an analysis of DIF using a two-tier full-information item factor analysis model. This particular factor analysis model p...

This study examined the equivalence of the English and Spanish versions of the Medicare Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Study (CAHPS) fee-for-service (FFS) survey among 2,996 Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses indicated that with few exceptions the factor structures were very similar for the English and Spanish surveys. However, item response theory-bas...

Short form measures from the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System® (PROMIS®) are used widely. The present study was among the first to examine differential item functioning (DIF) in the PROMIS Depression short form scales in a sample of over 5000 racially/ethnically diverse patients with cancer. DIF analyses were conducted across different racial/ethnic, educational, age, ge...

Differential item functioning (DIF) indicates the violation of the invariance assumption for instance in models based on item response theory (IRT). For item-wise DIF analysis using IRT, a common metric for the item parameters of the groups that are to be compared (e.g. for the reference and the focal group) is necessary. In the Rasch model, therefore, the same linear restriction is imposed in ...

OBJECTIVE To calibrate the Dutch-Flemish version of the PROMIS physical function (PF) item bank in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to evaluate cross-cultural measurement equivalence with US general population and RA data. METHODS Data were collected from RA patients enrolled in the Dutch DREAM registry. An incomplete longitudinal anchored design was used where patients completed a...