Abstract

Effective assessment of the performance of educational systems is a key component in developing policies to optimize the development of human capital around the world. The five books in the National Assessments of Educational Achievement series introduce key concepts in national assessments of student achievement levels, from policy issues to address when designing and carrying out assessments through test development, questionnaire design, sampling, organizing and carrying out data collection, data cleaning, statistical analysis, report writing, and using results to improve educational quality. Analyzing Data from a National Assessment of Educational Achievement is the fourth of five volumes in the National Assessments of Educational Achievement series. Other volumes have described the procedures in an assessment up to the point when data have been prepared for statistical analysis, the topic of this volume. The precise analyses that are carried out will depend on the information needs of policy makers and education managers. In most national assessments, these relate to the quality of student learning, factors related to learning, equity issues, and in some cases, change in educational outcomes over time. Volume 4, which comprises two parts, provides step-by-step details on how to analyze data collected in a national assessment. Part I provides a general introduction to statistical analyses normally carried out in large-scale assessments, measuring central tendency and dispersion of student scores and relationships between variables. Part II describes IATA (Item and Test Analysis) software, which uses classical test and item response theories to establish scales on which to report student scores. Steps in the analysis of pilot and final test administrations are described in detail. An accompanying CD contains specially designed exercises and supporting data files for both parts of the volume. This book will be of interest to assessment specialists in national, regional, and local governments, research institutions, and universities.