Examining Quality of Mathemtics Test Items Using Rasch Model: Preminarily Analysis

Producing a high quality of test items needs a substantial time and efforts in developing and examining each test item. Literature suggested this limitation can be remedied with a large collection of test items along with their measurement characteristics which termed as item bank. However, a well-developed item bank is formed by a set of high quality of test items using a rigorous development and validation procedures. In achieving this, this study attempts to describe the development of Malaysian secondary school Form two Mathematics item bank; and to examine the psychometric properties of the test items which developed based on Malaysian Mathematics Curriculum Specifications. The sample consisted of 1 316 Form two students selected from 12 secondary schools in the state of Penang and Perak. Data was analyzed using Rasch Unidimensional Measurement Model with WinSteps computer program. The results showed that 19 out of 160 items were excluded as not fitting Rasch measurement model. Thus, only 141 items were stored in the item bank and empirically fulfilled the quality as suggested by the Rasch measurement model. This study contributes to create Malaysian Mathematics item bank which deserves to be further created, tested and modified the computer adaptive testing (CAT) program.