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Analyses of Model Fit and Robustness. A New Look at the PISA Scaling Model Underlying Ranking of Countries According to Reading Literacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Svend Kreiner  and
Karl Bang Christensen
Svend Kreiner*
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Karl Bang Christensen
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
*
Requests for reprints should be sent to Svend Kreiner, Department of Biostatistics, University of Copenhagen, Oster Farimagsgade 5, B, PO Box 2029, 1014 Copenhagen K, Denmark. E-mail: s.kreiner@biostat.ku.dk
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Abstract

This paper addresses methodological issues that concern the scaling model used in the international comparison of student attainment in the Programme for International Student Attainment (PISA), specifically with reference to whether PISA’s ranking of countries is confounded by model misfit and differential item functioning (DIF). To determine this, we reanalyzed the publicly accessible data on reading skills from the 2006 PISA survey. We also examined whether the ranking of countries is robust in relation to the errors of the scaling model. This was done by studying invariance across subscales, and by comparing ranks based on the scaling model and ranks based on models where some of the flaws of PISA’s scaling model are taken into account. Our analyses provide strong evidence of misfit of the PISA scaling model and very strong evidence of DIF. These findings do not support the claims that the country rankings reported by PISA are robust.

Keywords

differential item functioningrankingrobustnesseducational testingprogramme for international student assessmentPISARasch modelsreading literacy
Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 79 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 210 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 The Psychometric Society

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