Advances in Item Analysis

Abstract

correct response to an item as a function of age, item analysis has been an important component in the field of educational mea surement. Two basic theoretical models, the classical psychomet ric and the item characteristic curve, have been developed, and a wide variety of item analysis procedures have been created. At the present time, it is a rare measurement textbook that does not devote some space to item analysis. Following the example set in these textbooks, most practitioners of item analysis use the classical psychometric model in which item difficulty and the item-criterion correlation are used to describe an item. In recent years, however, the primary advances in the theory of item analysis have been under the item characteristic curve model. This model has a strong statistical orientation and has been subsumed under what is now called "Latent Trait Theory " (see Lord & Novick, 1968). While latent trait theory has the estima tion of ability as a primary goal, the item characteristic curve model is at the core of the theory. Since about 1960, there have been significant developments and refinements in item analysis, new item characteristics curve models have been employed, more sophisticated estimation procedures have been used, and a richer conceptualization of the role of item statistics in test construc tion has evolved. While some lag between developments in theories and their use in practice is to be expected, this lag in the field of item analysis appears to be unusually large. In their survey of test theory, Bock and Wood (1971) found that few measurement books in cluded the item characteristic curve model, and the one extended

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