MODULE 4: DESCRIPTION OF ASSESSMENT DATA

TEST APPRAISAL

ITEM ANALYSIS

Item analysis refers to the process of examining the student’s responses to each item in the test.
According to Abubakar S. Asaad and William M. Hailaya (Measurement and Evaluation Concepts &
Principles) Rex Bookstore (2004 Edition), there are two characteristics of an item. These are desirable
and undesirable characteristics. An item that has desirable characteristics can be retained for subsequent
use and that with undesirable characteristics is either be revised or rejected.

These are the criteria in determining the desirability and undesirability of an item.

a. Difficulty of an item
b. Discriminating power of an item
c. Measures of attractiveness

Difficulty index refers to the proportion of the number of students in the upper and lower groups who answered an
item correctly. In a classroom achievement test, the desired indices of difficulty not lower than 0.20 nor higher than
0.80. the average index difficulty form 0.30 or 0.40 to maximum of 0.60.

DF = PUG + PLG 2

PUG = proportion of the upper group who got an item right PLG = proportion of the lower group who get an item
right

Level of Difficulty of an Item

Index Range Difficulty Level

0.00-0.20 Very difficult

0.21-0.40 Difficult

0.41-0.60 Moderately Difficult

0.61-0.80 Easy

0.81-1.00 Very Easy

Index of Discrimination

Discrimination Index is the differences between the proportion of high performing students who got the item and the
proportion of low performing students who got an item right. The high and low performing students usually defined
as the upper 27% of the students based on the total examination score and the lower 27% of the students based on
total examination score. Discrimination are classified into positive Discrimination if the proportion of students who
got an item right in the upper performing group is greater than the students in the upper performing group. And Zero
Discrimination if the proportion of the students who got an item right in the upper performing group and low
performing group are equal.

Discrimination Index Item Evaluation

0.40 and up Very good item

0.30-0.39 Reasonably good item but possibly subject to improvement

0.20-0.29 Marginal, usually needing and being subject to improvement

Below 0.19 Poor Item, to be rejected or improved by version

Maximum Discrimination is the sum of the proportion of the upper and lower groups who answered the item
correctly. Possible maximum discrimination will occur if the half or less of the sum of the upper and lower groups
answered an item correctly.

Discriminating Efficiency is the index of discrimination divided by the maximum discrimination. PUG = proportion
of the upper group who got an item right
PLG= proportion of the lower group who got an item right Di = discrimination index
DM – Maximum discrimination DE = Discriminating Efficiency

Formula:
Di = PUG – PLG DE = Di
DM

DM= PUG + PLG

Example: Eighty students took an examination in Algebra, 6 students in the upper group got the correct answer and 4
students in the lower group got the correct answer for item number 6. Find the Discriminating efficiency

Given:

Number of students took the exam = 80

27% of 80 = 21.6 or 22, which means that there are 22 students in the upper performing group and 22 students in the
lower performing group.

PUG = 6/22 = 27%

Di = PUG- PLG

= 27%- 18%

Di= 9%

DM = PUG +PLG

= 27% + 18%

DM= 45%

DE = Di/DM

= .09/.45

DE = 0.20 or 20%

This can be interpreted as on the average, the item is discriminating at 20% of the potential of an item of its
difficulty.

Measures of Attractiveness

To measure the attractiveness of the incorrect option ( distracters) in multiple-choice tests, we count the number if
students who selected the incorrect option in both upperand lower groups. The incorrect option is said to be
effective distracter if there are more students in the lower group chose that incorrect option than those
students in the upper group.

Steps of Item Analysis

1. Rank the scores of the students from highest score to lowest score.
2. Select 27% of the papers within the upper performing group and 27% of the papers within the lower
performing group.
3. Set aside the 46% of papers because they will not be used for item analysis.
4. Tabulate the number of students in the upper group and lower group who selected each alternative.
5. Compute the difficulty of each item
6. Compute the discriminating powers of each item
7. Evaluate the effectiveness of the distracters.