Development of Objective Standard Setting Using Rasch Measurement Model in Malaysian Institution of Higher Learning

Abstract

Measurement and evaluation of students’ achievement are an important aspect to make sure that student really understand the course content and monitor students' achievement level. Performance is not only reflected from the numbers of high achievers of the students, but also on quality of the grade obtained; does the grade 'A' truly reflective of a high achiever student. As part of quality improvement, standard setting for students’ examination scoring should be set up for courses offered in the institutions. Setting the cut scores of the performance standard is important in making sure the performance is of expected standard. Commonly standard settings done through experts' judgement based on their knowledge and experience on the subject's matter and estimation made often too difficult and confusing for many. This paper discusses implementation of Objective Standard Setting (OSS) using Rasch measurement model in a Malaysian Institution of Higher Learning. This method gives an advantage for academic administrators to scientifically establish the standards or cut scores focusing on validity of the test being used and the Rasch measurement properties of the resultant scale.