Identifying With More Than One Racial/Ethnic Group: Another Examination of the Impact on Differential Item Functioning Statistics

• In Event: 72.021 - Topics in Differential Item Functioning

Abstract

Increasingly, people in the United States identify themselves as belonging to more than one race and/or ethnic group. The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) noticed a change in how the US population self-identifies as early as the 1970s and created statistical policy directives about how to collect racial/ethnic information (OMB 1977; Skerry, 1996). This study represents another examination of how the change in the collection of racial/ethnic data may impact DIF statistics.

Authors

• Anita Rawls, The College Board

• Xiuyuan Zhang, The College Board

• Amy B. Hendrickson, The College Board