Premium
Differential Item Functioning for Minority Examinees on the SAT
Author(s) -
Sehmitt Alieia P.,
Dorans Nell J.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of educational measurement
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.917
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-3984
pISSN - 0022-0655
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-3984.1990.tb00735.x
Subject(s) - differential item functioning , ethnic group , psychology , disadvantage , test (biology) , aptitude , item analysis , differential (mechanical device) , developmental psychology , item response theory , psychometrics , paleontology , engineering , sociology , anthropology , political science , law , biology , aerospace engineering
The standardization approach to assessing differential item functioning (DIF), including standardized distractor analysis, is described. The results of studies conducted on Asian Americans, Hispanics (Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans), and Blacks on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) are described and then synthesized across studies. Where the groups were limited to include only examinees who spoke English as their best language, very few items across forms and ethnic groups exhibited large DIF. Major findings include evidence of differential speededness (where minority examinees did not complete SAT‐Verbal sections at the same rate as White students with comparable SAT‐Verbal scores) for Blacks and Hispanics and, when the item content is of special interest, advantages for the relevant ethnic group. In addition, homographs tend to disadvantage all three ethnic groups, but the effect of vertical relationships in analogy items are not as consistent. Although these findings are important in understanding DIF, they do not seem to account for all differences. Other variables related to DIF still need to be identified. Furthermore, these findings are seen as tentative until corroborated by studies using controlled data collection designs.