difNLR: Detection of potentional gender/minority bias with extensions of logistic regression
Adela Drabinova1,2 and Patricia Martinkova2
1. Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague
2. Institute of Computer Science, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
Keywords: detection of item bias, differential item functioning, psychometrics, R
Webpages: https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=difNLR, https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ShinyItemAnalysis, https://shiny.cs.cas.cz/ShinyItemAnalysis/
The R package difNLR has been developed for detection of potentially unfair items in educational and psychological testing, analysis of so called Differential Item Functioning (DIF), based on extensions of logistic regression model. For dichotomous data, six models have been implemented to offer wide range of proxies to Item Response Theory models. Parameters are obtained using non-linear least square estimation and DIF detection procedure is performed by either F or likelihood ratio test of submodel. For unscored data, analysis of Differential Distractor Functioning (DDF) based on multinomial regression model is offered to provide closer look at individual item options (distractors). Features and options are demonstrated on three data sets. The package is designed to correspond to difR package (one of the most used R libraries in DIF detection, see Magis, Béland, Tuerlinckx, & De Boeck (2010)) and currently is exploited by ShinyItemAnalysis (Martinková, Drabinová, Leder, & Houdek, 2017) which provides graphical interface offering detailed analysis of educational and psychological tests.
References
Magis, D., Béland, S., Tuerlinckx, F., & De Boeck, P. (2010). A general framework and an R package for the detection of dichotomous differential item functioning. Behavior Research Methods, 42(3), 847–862. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.42.3.847
Martinková, P., Drabinová, A., Leder, O., & Houdek, J. (2017). ShinyItemAnalysis: Test and item analysis via shiny. Retrieved from shiny.cs.cas.cz/ShinyItemAnalysis/; https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ShinyItemAnalysis
Martinková, P., Drabinová, A., Liaw, Y.-L., Sanders, E. A., McFarland, J. L., & Price, R. M. (2017). Checking equity: Why differential item functioning analysis should be a routine part of developing conceptual assessments. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-10-0307
McFarland, J. L., Price, R. M., Wenderoth, M. P., Martinková, P., Cliff, W., Michael, J., … Wright, A. (2017). Development and validation of the homeostasis concept inventory. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-10-0305
