THE STANDARDIZATION APPROACH TO ASSESSING DIFFERENTIAL SPEEDEDNESS

An adaptation of the standardization approach to assessing differential item functioning that applies to all item responses, including omits and not reached, is described. Applications of this method to evaluate differential speededness show that there is evidence of differential speededness for Blacks and Hispanics, but not for Asian-Americans. There may be a dependency between differential speededness and test section location: Differential speededness may be more noticeable when the test section is located at the beginning of the test. Implications of these findings for evaluations of content-related differential item functioning and on differential test-taking strategies are described.