SAT Differential Item Performance for Nine Handicapped Groups

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify broad classes of items that behave differentially for handicapped examinees taking special, extended‐time administrations of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SA T). To identify these item classes, the performance of nine handicapped groups and one nonhandicapped group on each of two forms of the SAT was investigated through a two‐stage procedure. The first stage centered on the performance of item clusters. Individual items composing clusters showing questionable performance were then examined. This two‐stage procedure revealed little indication of differentially functioning item classes. However, some notable instances of differential performance at the item level were detected, the most serious of which affected visually impaired students taking the braille edition of the test.