Surveying Primary Teachers about Compulsory Numeracy Testing: Combining Factor Analysis with Rasch Analysis

Abstract

This paper reports the use of analytic methods, including Rasch item analysis, to re-examine teacher responses to questionnaire items probing opinions related to the compulsory numeracy tests conducted in Years 3, 5 and 7, in Queensland, Australia. Nisbet and Grimbeek (2004) previously reported an interpretable and statistically acceptable 6-factor exploratory factor solution. The present paper improved on this outcome by utilising Rasch analysis to identify items with orderly sequences of scores across response categories, and subjecting these to fresh exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The resulting 3-factor scale proved acceptable in terms of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and also in terms of Rasch item analysis. The paper briefly discusses the implications of these outcomes in terms of the refined instrument's capacity to gather information about how teachers view the Queensland numeracy reporting system.