Rasch Item-bank Open Source Project

Purpose

The purpose of the Rasch Item-bank Project is to create an objective and highly reliable numeracy assessment tool, which is free and available to children all over the world.

There is an abundance of commercial education software on the web and there are many free games or game-like education applications, but there are few serious measurement tools. The idea of this project is to create a self-assessment tool enabling children in sub-Saharan Africa or the mountains of Peru to be measured on the same scale as children from central London or Manhattan.

Theory

The project is inspired by the chapters in Probabilistic Models (Rasch 1960), which deal with reading rates (Chapters 3 and 9). The software applies the arguments in those chapters to use the scoring rates directly to estimate item difficulty and student ability.

Scoring rates are defined as the reciprocal of the time taken (in fractions of a minute) to complete each item. Timing item responses invisibly on each item averts the theoretical and practical concerns expressed in the literature (Ebel, 1979, Meijer, 1993, Halkitis, Jones & Pradhan, 1996) over tightly timed pencil and paper tests.

Research by the project owner (Hippisley & Douglas, 1998) indicates that scoring rates on number skill tests make a highly reliable metric. Scoring rates on individual items correlate well with each other, with the mean rates on whole sessions, and with mean rates on other sessions by the same student.

Method

The method of the software is:

· To serve up test items from a bank of items stored on a file server;

· To record a dichotomous item score on each item;

· To record the scoring rate (reciprocal of the time taken) on each item;

· To adjust the difficulty of items served in response to the ability implied by the results on items previously served;

· To record a unique session parameter for each student test session;

· To return the items scores, scoring rates and session parameters to the server.

By default, for the purpose of Rasch analysis the session replaces the student. This enables anonymous data to be collected and analyzed, without contravening the data

protection and privacy laws, which apply in many countries. In cases where permission has been granted to record data against students, actual students can be used in the analysis.

Roles of the project owner

· To create source code for a demonstration web based application (done);

· To make the demonstration application available on a public server (done);

· To analyze data from the application and refine item grouping.

· To raise awareness of the project and the application.

Possible roles of future participants

· Programmers may create source code for the generation of additional test items;

· Researchers may use the published application to carry out addition research, perhaps further researching the reliability of the application, or correlating results with other instruments;

· Teachers may simply use the application for their own diagnostic purposes.

Resources

· Project URL: http://java.net/projects/rasch-itembank/

· Demonstration application URL: http://softway.org/PP120101/AMJApp.php.

Project owner
Jonathan Hippisley, PhD
Email: jhipp\at/softway.org

References

Ebel, R.L. (1979) Essentials of Educational Measurement Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

Halkitis, P.N., Jones, P.J., Pradhan, J. (1996) Estimating Testing Time: The Effects of Item Characteristics on Response Latency ED397119

Hippisley, J., Douglas, G. (1998) The reliability and validity of an interactive arithmetic test British Journal of Education Technology, 29(4), 303-320

Meijer, J. (1993) Learning potential, personality characteristics and test performance Learning Potential Assessment: Theoretical methodological and practical issues (Hamers JHM, Sijtsma K, Ruijssenaars JM Eds) Swets and Zeitlinger, Amsterdam, NL 341-362

Rasch, G. (1960) Probabilistic models for some intelligence and attainment tests University of Chicago Press, Chicago

Rasch Item-bank Open Source Project. Jonathan Hippisley … Rasch Measurement Transactions, 2012, 26:2 p. 1370

Rasch Books and Publications
Invariant Measurement: Using Rasch Models in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences, 2nd Edn. George Engelhard, Jr. & Jue Wang	Applying the Rasch Model (Winsteps, Facets) 4th Ed., Bond, Yan, Heene	Advances in Rasch Analyses in the Human Sciences (Winsteps, Facets) 1st Ed., Boone, Staver	Advances in Applications of Rasch Measurement in Science Education, X. Liu & W. J. Boone	Rasch Analysis in the Human Sciences (Winsteps) Boone, Staver, Yale
Introduction to Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets), Thomas Eckes	Statistical Analyses for Language Testers (Facets), Rita Green	Invariant Measurement with Raters and Rating Scales: Rasch Models for Rater-Mediated Assessments (Facets), George Engelhard, Jr. & Stefanie Wind	Aplicação do Modelo de Rasch (Português), de Bond, Trevor G., Fox, Christine M	Appliquer le modèle de Rasch: Défis et pistes de solution (Winsteps) E. Dionne, S. Béland
Exploring Rating Scale Functioning for Survey Research (R, Facets), Stefanie Wind	Rasch Measurement: Applications, Khine	Winsteps Tutorials - free Facets Tutorials - free	Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets) - free, J.M. Linacre	Fairness, Justice and Language Assessment (Winsteps, Facets), McNamara, Knoch, Fan
Other Rasch-Related Resources: Rasch Measurement YouTube Channel
Rasch Measurement Transactions & Rasch Measurement research papers - free	An Introduction to the Rasch Model with Examples in R (eRm, etc.), Debelak, Strobl, Zeigenfuse	Rasch Measurement Theory Analysis in R, Wind, Hua	Applying the Rasch Model in Social Sciences Using R, Lamprianou	El modelo métrico de Rasch: Fundamentación, implementación e interpretación de la medida en ciencias sociales (Spanish Edition), Manuel González-Montesinos M.
Rasch Models: Foundations, Recent Developments, and Applications, Fischer & Molenaar	Probabilistic Models for Some Intelligence and Attainment Tests, Georg Rasch	Rasch Models for Measurement, David Andrich	Constructing Measures, Mark Wilson	Best Test Design - free, Wright & Stone Rating Scale Analysis - free, Wright & Masters
Virtual Standard Setting: Setting Cut Scores, Charalambos Kollias	Diseño de Mejores Pruebas - free, Spanish Best Test Design	A Course in Rasch Measurement Theory, Andrich, Marais	Rasch Models in Health, Christensen, Kreiner, Mesba	Multivariate and Mixture Distribution Rasch Models, von Davier, Carstensen

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