Manager of Reporting and Analytics University of Central Florida College of Medicine, United States
Session Abstract: This presentation will introduce the concept of differential item functioning (DIF), which is a statistical technique that is used to test for fairness in test items. The presentation will begin by discussing the statistical background of the technique. It will then provide participants with the SPSS syntax needed to conduct a DIF analysis. It will also include a discussion of a DIF study that was conducted on a second-year medical school exam. In the study, faculty revised questions that were previously identified as having DIF in order to determine if the revisions could eliminate the DIF without negatively affecting the other psychometric properties of the questions.
Keywords: Differential Item Functioning, equity in assessment, fairness of assessment
