Uncovering Differential Item Functioning (DIF) Effects in SAAT Using the MIMIC DIF Approach

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Equity and Fairness in Educational Measurement (Table 39)

Abstract

This study was aim twofold: 1)to examine the presence of bias across gender in the SAAT Test. 2)to understand the underlying mechanism that causes these bias effects by examining the effect of general cognitive ability as a mediator. The sample consisted of 1,300 Saudi high school students randomly selected from a larger pool of 173,133 participants to reduce the effects of excessive power. To examine both goals, the MIMIC approach for detecting DIF items was used. Next, the mediated MIMIC approach was applied to explore possible underlying mechanisms that explain these DIF effects. The results from this study showed that general cognitive ability seems to be a factor that could explain why a SAAT item exhibits DIF across gender.

Author

• Maisaa Taleb Alahmadi, Education and Training Evaluation Commission