Testing for Measurement Invariance in the Belizean Primary School Exam

• In Event: MWERA Poster Presentation

Abstract

The Belizean Primary School Exam (PSE) is a high-stakes standardized assessment given to all eight-grade students in the country of Belize. The PSE is used to certify the students have completed primary school and to guide educational decision making for those students. The PSE has not been studied much beyond descriptive statistics. Belize is a diverse country which creates some concerns using the PSE across groups. Measuring invariance allows for inferences on fairness and the generalizability of the findings. The purpose of this study was to analyze the measurement invariance and structural invariance across gender, management system, and location. Overall the results revealed that the constructs have similar meaning across these groups. When looking at the close fit indices (CFI & SRMR) and relaxing some the full invariance decisions, the PSE had support for partial measurement invariance across gender, management, and location.

Authors

• Brooke Milstead, University of Nebraska

• Betty-Jean Usher-Tate, University of Nebraska-Lincoln