Alternative Mathematical Aptitude Item Types: DIF Issues.

Alternative mathematical items administered as prototypes at the spring 1989 Field Trials of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) are evaluated for differential item functioning (DIF) and differential speededness. Results for Algebra Placement (AP) and Student Produced Response (SPR) items are presented and contrasted with results obtained on two current SAT-Math (SAT-M) items: Regular Math and Quantitative Comparison. Analyses on comparisons between female and comparable male examinees, and between Asian-American, Black, and Hispanic examinees in comparison to comparable White examinees indicate that both of these alternative items appear to have DIF. Additional DIF analyses comparing the use of an internal versus an external matching criteria for the SPR items show evidence of negative DIF with either criteria. Results using the Mantel Haenszel Delta DIF statistic are more extreme than DIF results using the standardization p metric DIF index. Differential speededness results indicate that the two Math prototypes have slightly higher levels of differential speededness than the SAT-M. The SPR items pose an interesting problem for DIF. The definition of an appropriate DIF matching criterion for constructed response items and metric differences between methods and their effect on difficult or easy items also need further exploration. One figure and 13 tables illustrate the analysis. (Contains 15 references.) (Author/SLD)