Differential Item Functioning in Student Success When Modeled as a Latent Variable

• In Event: Rasch Measurement Innovations

Abstract

This paper addressed differential item functioning (DIF) in cognitive items (course grade, college GPA, and concept inventory gain score) and affective items (self-determination, purpose, identity, and engagement) using a latent model of student success. 585 Introductory Biology students were sampled in from a mid-sized public urban-serving university in the western United States. Considerable DIF was found. Groups had a harder/easier time endorsing various affective indicators of success while other groups had more/less difficulty in obtaining cognitive indicators of success. Analyses such as this may aid in current and ongoing equity research in undergraduate science education by allowing for a more nuanced look into the relative difficulty of several proxies of success simultaneously for different student groups.

Authors

• Courtney Donovan, University of Colorado - Denver
  Presenting Author

• Hannah Huvard, New Mexico State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jax Snyders
  Presenting Author