Psychometric evaluation of entry assessment in higher education: A case study

Entry assessment for higher education is a managerial and research topic in many European countries at this moment. Due to the increased claim for higher quality in education and the decreasing finances, universities seek for means to establish a high quality instream. Research has shown that types of entry examinations offer good possibilities to put “the right man on the right place”. Not only the quality of these examinations is an important issue, also systematic differences between student groups is a main point of attention. Turkey, using a two stage assessment for several years already, is a good example of the latter. Now that several universities think about selection at the front door, it might be worth to think about evaluating selection criteria and to look at method to avoid group bias for example. Evaluating the test items with respect to systematic differences between certain groups of students has become a crucial part of item analysis and validity studies among the test users. In the present study differential item functioning (DIF) analysis was carried out for the first stage of the University Entrance Examinations in Turkey by the use of four area indices. The differences in the magnitudes of the area indices have been compared with respect to the taxonomy of educational objectives the items are supposed to measure and the subject areas. The differences among the area indices were also evaluated and compared in the present study. Item characteristic curves were obtained across the sex and branch groups by using the BILOG package program.