Coding Wright Maps to Examine Language and Cultural Influences in Alphabet Knowledge

• In Event: Advanced Psychometric Analyses in Rasch Modeling

Abstract

Alphabet Knowledge is measured by asking children to name upper or lowercase letters and their respective sounds. Researchers tend to create a total or average score of the number of correct letters implying that each letter of the alphabet is an indicator of the whole construct, thus creating a measure of letter knowledge. Only four studies have used IRT modeling to examine psychometric properties of alphabet knowledge and all are in English. This study used a sample of 101 children 4-6 years of age in Chile to examine Spanish and English differences by coding Wright maps. Cultural differences on how letters are taught in Chile help explain considerable differences in item difficulty noted in the Wright maps across languages.

Authors

• Courtney Donovan, University of Colorado - Denver

• Cristina Gillanders, University of Colorado - Denver

• Maria Francisca Valenzuela, Universidad de los Andes

• Heidi Burke, University of Colorado - Denver