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Fundamentals of Item Response Theory (Measurement Methods for the Social Science)

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This short volume covers many of the basics of Item Respone Theory, beginning with a definition of the topic, moving through test analysis and construction, and finally ending with some of the basics of computerized adaptive testing. While there are certainly quantitative examples and problems, the focus is on quantitative explanations and descriptions of the process to motivate the study in the first place. Three possible mathematical frameworks are discussed, and their corresponding formulae provided without derivation. (The authors will quote the general form of an information function, for example, and then skip to the completely derived version for the model at hand. A reader familiar with statistics and calculus can fill in the intermediate steps; a reader not familiar with these topics will have no reason to, as the results of the derivation are provided.)

The text is clear and complete, and can be used by those who wish to work with item reponse theory in all its gory details, or by those who simply wish to have a better understanding of what the subject is all about. Excellent first introduction to the topic.