A Goodness of Fit Test for the Rasch Model

Abstract

The Rasch model is an item analysis model with logistic item characteristic curves of equal slope, i.e. with constant item discriminating powers. The proposed goodness of fit test is based on a comparison between difficulties estimated from different scoregroups and over-all estimates. Based on the within scoregroup estimates and the over-all estimates of item difficulties a conditional likelihood ratio is formed. It is shown that—2 times the logarithm of this ratio is x 2 -distributed when the Rasch model is true. The power of the proposed goodness of fit test is discussed for alternative models with logistic item characteristic curves, but unequal discriminating items from a scholastic aptitude test.