Evaluating and Improving the Socioeconomic Status Scale in the PISA Background Questionnaire

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: The Finer Detail of Education Policy

Abstract

An increasing number of countries are participating in PISA, presenting new challenges in ensuring the comparability of scores on the cognitive assessment as well as the SES scale. The purpose of this research is to improve the comparability of PISA’s SES scale by identifying items that should be excluded from the scale. Using data from PISA 2015, this research identifies items with low discrimination, high level of misfit across countries, and high correlation between the item misfit and country’s GDP per capita. Improving the psychometric properties of items in the SES scale will increase PISA’s usefulness as an international assessment that measures students’ learning as well as equity in learning, both of which are important goals for international education today.

Authors

• Selene Sunmin Lee, Educational Testing Service

• Kentaro Yamamoto, Educational Testing Service

• Lale Khorramdel, TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center/Boston College