Customer Reviews

Best Test Design (Rasch Measurement Series)

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This book explains how the Rasch model imposes a measurement system upon data. It explains how counting is misleading and how the Rasch model permits sample-free item calibration and test-free person measures. The concept of fit is explained as well. While the formulae are included in this book, one does not have to be a mathematician to understand the ideas. This book will serve the novice and the veteran well.

This book was perhaps important 30 years ago. So much has happened in Rasch modeling and IRT since then that it only is of interest to those who want to study the history of the Rasch models.

I recommend this book to those who want to understand some of the inner workings when applying the Rasch model. Sure, there are other models but the single parameter model has a great number of advantges and serves as a good place to begin to understand IRT. For dichotomous items, this book gives the reader a fairly well organized starting point because the reader can, as a learning exercise, reproduce computations in Best Test Design manually or using a spreadsheet. The book is easy to read, considering the topic, and fairly comprehensive in describing the fundamentals. If the reader is looking for a manual on how to use commercailly available software there are other books that do that.