Using Item Response Models to Develop a Criterion-Referenced Test to Measure the Students Achievement in Educational Evaluation

The purpose of the study was to develop a criterion-referenced test to measurestudent s achievement in educational evaluation using item response theory. To achieve thisgoal, the author constructed a 3-option multiple-choice achievement test of 48 items that waslater administered to 348 students enrolled at the University of Bahrain. The findings of studyrevealed that the students responses to 31 items fit the Rasch model assumptions while 17 itemsdid not fit the model. All items of the final version of the test, however, were located within therange of the model s infit and outfit indicators. Also, the reliability estimates for persons anditems were .87 and .93, respectively, indicating a high reliability of the test, and the maximuminformation extracted from the three-option test is obtained at the average ability levels. Basedon these results, the author recommends using the developed test as a reliable measure of thelevel of university student s achievement in the subject of educational evaluation.