Catherine Nguveren UPU, Amalonye Daya Ethel OBINNE, Magaret Olufumilayo ADULOJU, and Christiana Ikpoyi AGI
Department of Guidance and Counselling, Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi, Nigeria
Abstract
The study on Assessing Item Parameter Drift of 2019-2022 National Examination Council Mathematics Essay Questions in Benue State, Nigeria, was meant to check the item parameters to ascertain if drift exist. The population of the study was 18754 senior secondary three (SS3) students from the 258 senior secondary schools in Benue State who registered for 2023 NECO Mathematics paper II examination. The sample size for this study was 408 students from intact classes of SS3 students from the different schools. The sampling for this study was in multi-stages. A counter-balanced research design was used. Four instruments were used for data collection. The instruments were past examination essay Mathematics Questions of NECO 2019-2022 which were adopted. Item parameters of difficulty and discrimination were calibrated using GPCM built in X-calibre. One way ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. The study revealed that there was no significant drift in both the mean difficulty and discrimination index of the items. There was a negative (low) drift in the mean difficulty index of NECO Mathematics essay test items of 2019-2022. The item discrimination of 2019-2022 exhibited both medium and a negative (low) drift. Based on the results of the findings, the study concludes that the item parameters of NECO Mathematics essay test items with negative difficulty and discrimination parameters need to be reviewed to ensure that when used in future examinations the test quality would be improved.
Keywords: Assessment, Item Parameter Drift, Mathematics Examination, NECO, Mathematics Essay Questions, Measurement and Evaluation
How to Cite this Article:
Upu, C. N., Obinne, A. D. E., Aduloju, M. O., & Agi, C. I. (2024). Assessing Item Parameter Drift of 2019-2022 National Examination Council Mathematics Essay Questions in Benue State, Nigeria. VillageMath Educational Review (VER), 7(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14760021
