DIF Analysis of the Sense of School Belonging Scale by Performance and Survey Language

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  In Roundtable Session: Contextualizing Educational Data

Abstract

Fourth-grade students’ responses to the Sense of School Belonging scale from the 2023 TIMSS were assessed for differential item functioning (DIF) by comparing the five highest and five lowest performing countries participating in TIMSS and by the language used for the scale. The first analysis by performance level was an exploration of potential cultural differences that may occur in higher- vs lower-performing educational systems, and language was analyzed as a post-hoc analysis to determine if cultural differences might be attributed to translation across languages. The partial credit tree model for DIF identified differences across performance groups, with post-hoc analyses identifying two items with significant large DIF. These items indicated higher agreement with Items 1 and 5 for lower-performing countries.

Authors

• Henrietta Kadi Tettey-Tawiah, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

• Ronna C. Turner, University of Arkansas