Heike Wendt

On applications of Rasch models in international comparative large-scale assessments: a historical review

Several current international comparative large-scale assessments of educational achievement (ICLSA) make use of “Rasch models”, to address functions essential for valid cross-cultural comparisons. From a historical perspective, ICLSA and Georg Raschs “models for measurement” emerged at about the same time, half acentury ago. However, the trajectories of these potentially complementary movements were not closely linked from the outset. This article follows the trajectories of ICLSA and Rasch measurement from the 1950s to the present day. Based on the technical documentation of ICLSA, the article traces the occurrence of Rasch models in these studies, and the purposes for which they are used, within the general shift from classical test theory to probabilistic approaches. We regard this historical synopsis as an initial attempt to explore the crossings and involvement of two educational fields which might initiate further research on thecontribution of the work of Georg Rasch to the development of measurement theory in relation to ICLSA.

Rasch measurement in educational contexts Special issue 2: Applications of Rasch measurement in large-scale assessments

This is the second of two special journal issues on Rasch measurement in educational contexts. Most of the articles compiled in these two issues originate from a symposium of the same title held in 2009 at the European Conference on Educational Research at the University of Vienna, Austria. The symposium, organized by Wilfried Bos, Tjeerd Plomp, and Pekka Kupari, and the publication of these two special issues were initiated to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of Georg Rasch publishing his seminal work on Probabilistic Models for Some Intelligence and Attainment Tests (Rasch, 1960) and to highlight the application and contribution of this work to educational research. As these two issues show, the contribution of Rasch’s work to educational research is in many ways related to the development of large-scale assessments as well as to the organizations conducting these assessments, on the international field most prominently the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA; Postlethwaite, 1995; Wagemaker, 2010). In view of the widespread use of the Rasch model and its extensions in recent studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) or the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS), one might argue that Rasch models helped to promote large-scale assessments and vice versa, if taking into account that in international comparative large-scale assessments Rasch measurement is primarily applied from the perspective of item response theory (Wendt, Bos, & Goy, this issue). The first of the two issues includes seven articles concerned with the theory, methodology, and applications of Rasch modeling in educational testing (see Educational Research and Evaluation, 17(5)). This second issue comprises six articles focused on applications of the Rasch measurement approach in large-scale assessments of educational achievement. The target audience for both issues we regard as rather broad: Both issues are meant to provide a reference for researchers from the field of educational testing and measurement. In addition, we trust that the issues may be of interest to those researchers already familiar with psychometrics, as well as to practitioners in the field of education.

Applying Rasch Measurement in Mathematics Education Research: Steps towards a Triangulated Investigation into Proficiency in the Multiplicative Conceptual Field.

Educational measurement is generally thought of as empirical, quantitative, and large-scale, whose purpose is to monitor educational systems. Sociocognitive studies, on the other hand, are associated with small-scale, theoretical, and qualitative studies, the purpose of which is to conduct fine-grained analysis of learning or teaching, or to comprehend in depth the development of a mathematical topic. This article describes an application of the Rasch model in mathematics education in which theory and measurement are used interactively to provide greater understanding of a constellation of mathematical concepts within the multiplicative conceptual field. It is affirmed here that Rasch measurement provides the basis for a coherent research model based on principles of measurement, while giving consideration to the theoretical construct. Challenges to educational measurement demand that researchers provide substantive theoretical models to support, firstly, educational measurement and, secondly, the level of inference that can be made from the measurement outcomes.

Academic Competencies: Their Interrelatedness and Gender Differences at Their High End.

The present study investigated (a) how a latent profile analysis based on representative data of N = 74,868 4th graders from 17 European countries would cluster the students on the basis of their reading, mathematics, and science achievement test scores; (b) whether there would be gender differences at various competency levels, especially among the top performers; (c) and whether societal gender equity might account for possible cross-national variation in the gender ratios among the top performers. The latent profile analysis revealed an international model with 7 profiles. Across these profiles, the test scores of all achievement domains progressively and consistently increased. Thus, consistent with our expectations, (a) the profiles differed only in their individuals’ overall performance level across all academic competencies and not in their individuals’ performance profile shape. From the national samples, the vast majority of the students could be reliably assigned to 1 of the profiles of the international model. Inspection of the gender ratios revealed (b) that boys were overrepresented at both ends of the competency spectrum. However, there was (c) some cross-national variation in the gender ratios among the top performers, which could be partly explained by women’s access to education and labor market participation. The interrelatedness of academic competencies and its practical implications, the role of gender equity as a possible cause of gender differences among the top performers, and directions for future research are discussed.

Social reproduction and sex in German primary schools

Abstract To understand the relationship between social background and sex in schooling, we use Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction and a feminist perspective of gender as practice. We pose two questions: (1) What is the relationship between economic and cultural capital and achievement for 4th-grade females versus males studying in Germany? (2) Is the relationship between school composition and student achievement different for 4th-grade females versus males? We report no differences between females and males in the relationships between social background and achievement (p > 0.05). However, the relationship between class-aggregated social background and achievement is halved in female-majority mathematics classrooms (β = -12.6, p < 0.05).

Wie viele Punkte auf der TIMSS-Metrik entsprechen einem Lernjahr?

Fur die Interpretation von Ergebnissen der Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) kann es hilfreich sein, als Kriterium Kompetenzzuwachse heranzuziehen, die Schulerinnen und Schuler fur gewohnlich im Laufe eines Jahres erzielen. In dem Beitrag wird auf Basis von Daten einer fur Deutschland reprasentativen Langsschnittstudie (ADDITION) untersucht, welche durchschnittlichen Leistungszuwachse Grundschulkinder im vierten Schuljahr in Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften auf der TIMSS-Skala erzielen. Hierzu werden unterschiedliche Equatingverfahren angewendet und Resultate verglichen. Je nach genutztem Verfahren liegt der durchschnittliche Leistungszuwachs in Mathematik zwischen 38 und 55 Leistungspunkten, fur die Naturwissenschaften zwischen 25 und 30 Punkten. Analysen wie diese konnen dazu dienen, Disparitaten im Kompetenzerwerb abzuschatzen und deren Bedeutsamkeit zu bewerten.

Wirkungen individualisierten Unterrichts in Grundschulen – Implikationen für die pädagogische Praxis

Der Fokus dieses Beitrages richtet sich auf die Thematik individualisierten Unterrichts fur Grundschulerinnen und Grundschuler unter der Berucksichtigung des soziookonomischen Hintergrundes und den sich daraus ergebenden Implikationen fur die padagogische Praxis. Obwohl international und auch in Deutschland bereits seit Langerem uber die Thematik sozialer Disparitaten im Bildungswesen diskutiert wurde (Bourdieu / Passeron 1971), ist diese Problematik insbesondere seit 2001 zum Gegenstand einer gesamtdeutschen offentlichen Debatte geworden.

A Comparative Investigation of South Africa's High-Performing Learners on Selected TIMSS Items Comprising Multiplicative Concepts.

South Africa participated in TIMSS from 1995 to 2015. Over these two decades, some positive changes have been reported on the aggregated mathematics performance patterns of South African learners. This paper focuses on the achievement patterns of South Africa’s high-performing Grade 9 learners (n = 3378) in comparison with similar subsamples of learners from Australia (n = 6581) and England (n = 3439) whose education systems are regarded as comparable. The aim of this study is to describe the relative strengths and weaknesses of these learners with reference to a selected subset of the TIMSS-2011 items comprising multiplicative concepts. The focus is on a specific though important content subdomain, the multiplicative conceptual field, which is considered a crucial learning area at this phase of schooling. The percentage correct scores were compared. In addition a Rasch analysis was applied to render both item difficulty and person proficiency on a single scale. In particular, the research outcome shows that this subset of South African Grade 9 students is able to solve routine problems, but lacks proficiency when it comes to application-type or reasoning-type problems. The Australian and English subsets show comparable strengths across all three problem types. We conclude that the factors determining performance include mathematical difficulty. However, where radically different outcomes across the three countries emerge, such differences may be explained by country-specific curricula implementation.

Rasch measurement in educational contexts Special issue 1: Rasch modeling in educational testing

This is the first of two special journal issues on Rasch measurement in educational contexts. Most of the articles compiled in these two issues originate from a symposium of the same title held in 2009 at the European Conference on Educational Research at the University of Vienna, Austria. The symposium, organized by Wilfried Bos, Tjeerd Plomp, and Pekka Kupari, and the publication of these two special issues were initiated to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of Georg Rasch publishing his seminal work on ProbabilisticModels for Some Intelligence and Attainment Tests (Rasch, 1960) and to highlight the application and contribution of this work to educational research. As these two issues show, the contribution of Rasch’s work to educational research is in many ways related to the development of large-scale assessments as well as to the organizations conducting these assessments, on the international field most prominently the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA; Postlethwaite, 1995; Wagemaker, 2010). In view of the widespread use of the Rasch model and its extensions in recent studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) or the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS), one might argue that Rasch models helped to promote largescale assessments and vice versa, if taking into account that in international comparative large-scale assessments Rasch measurement is primarily applied from the perspective of item response theory (Wendt, Bos, & Goy, 2011). The first of the two issues includes seven articles which address aspects of theory, methodology, and applications of Rasch modeling in educational testing. The second issue comprises six articles focused on applications of the Rasch measurement approach in large-scale assessments of educational achievement (see Educational Research and Evaluation, 17(6)). The target audience for both issues we regard as rather broad: Both issues are meant to provide a reference for researchers from the field of educational testing and measurement. In addition, we trust that the issues may be of interest to those researchers already familiar with psychometrics, as well as to practitioners in the field of education.