In his second item analysis, Mr. Gonzales found out that more from the lower group got the test item 15 correctly. What does this mean?

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In his second item analysis, Mr. Gonzales found out that more from the lower group got the test item 15 correctly. What does this mean?

Discrimination of an item refers to how well it differentiates between students with higher and lower overall ability on the test. If more students from the lower-ability group answer the item correctly than from the higher-ability group, the item is functioning in the opposite direction of what we expect. This is called negative discriminating power. It signals a flaw in the item—perhaps the question is miskeyed, ambiguous, or tapping content that isn’t aligned with the construct being measured, so it ends up helping lower-ability students more than higher-ability ones. Because the item doesn’t contribute to distinguishing different levels of ability, it should be reviewed and possibly revised or removed. This pattern is about how the item differentiates performance, not about overall test validity or reliability, which involve broader properties of the test rather than a single item’s directional discrimination.

Discrimination of an item refers to how well it differentiates between students with higher and lower overall ability on the test. If more students from the lower-ability group answer the item correctly than from the higher-ability group, the item is functioning in the opposite direction of what we expect. This is called negative discriminating power. It signals a flaw in the item—perhaps the question is miskeyed, ambiguous, or tapping content that isn’t aligned with the construct being measured, so it ends up helping lower-ability students more than higher-ability ones. Because the item doesn’t contribute to distinguishing different levels of ability, it should be reviewed and possibly revised or removed. This pattern is about how the item differentiates performance, not about overall test validity or reliability, which involve broader properties of the test rather than a single item’s directional discrimination.

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