COMPARING INCORRECT ANSWER PERCENTAGE DISPERSIONS IN STATEWIDE READING COMPREHENSION SCORES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL LEADERS

This Differential Distractor Functioning (DDF) study involved 855,023 regular education students in Grades 3, 6, and 11 in Texas. Percentage dispersion anomalies were identified in the 2009 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills Item Analysis Reports provided by the Texas Education Agency. Questions addressed in this investigation were: How many students answered incorrectly on certain test items? What items had the highest frequency of a single wrong answer? Which test objectives had balanced/even dispersions? Were these dispersions similar in other grade levels? Data analyses yielded an increase in incorrect answer anomalies by 8% from Grade 3 to Grade 11. Furthermore, a 100% incorrect answer anomaly was revealed for Objective 2 – Applying Literary Elements for Grade 6 students. From these results, educational leaders need to examine more closely specific objectives and test items so that they can determine underlying reasons for students not answering these objectives and test items correctly.