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Research has suggested that inappropriate or misfitting response patterns may have detrimental effects on the quality and validity of measurement. It has been suggested that factors like language and ethnic background are related to the generation of misfitting response patterns, but the empirical research on this is rather poor. This research analyzes data from three testing cycles of the National Curriculum tests in mathematics in England using the Rasch model. It was found that pupils having English as an additional language and pupils belonging to ethnic minorities are significantly more likely to generate aberrant response patterns. However, within the groups of pupils belonging to ethnic minorities, those who speak English as an additional language are not significantly more likely to generate misfitting response patterns. This may indicate that the ethnic background effect is more significant than the effect of the first language spoken. The results suggest that pupils having English as an additional language and pupils belonging to ethnic minorities are mismeasured significantly more than the remainder of pupils by taking the mathematics National Curriculum tests. More research is needed to generalize the results to other subjects and contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been frequently suggested that personal characteristics (e.g., language deficiencies, atypical schooling) may be responsible for the tendency of individuals to answer with aberrant response patterns to high stakes tests. This has not, however, been adequately validated using empirical data. This research uses datasets from seven mathematics, English and science papers to investigate the consistency with which individuals respond aberrantly across papers. Pupils who responded aberrantly on one paper were more likely to do so on other papers on the same subject. Also, pupils who responded aberrantly on one paper of one subject were more likely to do so on papers of another subject. Logistic multilevel models using the generation of aberrant response patterns as a dependent variable have suggested non-negligible intra-pupil and intra-school correlations.

A large number of papers and technical reports are published every year describing researches where Rasch models are used. It has been observed, however, that not all the authors describe the application of the Rasch measurement with the same thoroughness. Some authors may leave behind important bits of information e.g. they may fail to investigate the person or item fit or may even fail to discuss the reliability of measurement. As a result, editorial guidelines have been published in order to suggest an informal minimum of thoroughness with which the authors may describe the application of Rasch measurement in their papers. This study presents stages for the development of a scale to investigate the comprehensiveness with which individual papers describe the application of Rasch models in practical settings. The scale is used to evaluate how comprehensively the papers published by the Journal of Applied Measurement present the application of Rasch models.