Psychometric analyses of a mathematics placement exam

The goal of this study is to examine the psychometric soundness of Section I of the math placement instrument used at a major research university in west Texas. Using the Classical Test Theory model, or CTT, this study can be broken up into three main subsections. These subsections are an item analysis, a reliability study, and a validity study. The item analysis subsection of this study reports item difficulty levels, item discrimination indices, item curves, and item-to-total correlations. Estimates of instrument reliability, at both the subsection and total instrument level, follow the item analysis. These estimates were made using KR-20 and Cronbach's Alpha. The validity subsection of this study contains a review of content validity, a construct validity study, and a criterion related validity study. The item analysis, reliability study, and validity study, as a whole, serve to analyze and to provide data supported measures on the psychometric soundness of the Section I of the math placement instrument.