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PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF SOCIAL STUDIES COGNITIVE ACHIEVEMENT TEST FOR JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EKITI STATE

DARAMOLA, C. OLADAYO

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Abstract

This study was designed to develop and validate Social Studies Cognitive Achievement Test for junior secondary three (JS3) students in Ekiti State. This study was guided by five research questions and used the instrumentation research design. The population for the study was made up of 99 840 JS3 Social Studies students in public secondary schools in Ekiti State. The sample comprised of 650 JS3 students. The instrument developed and validated was Social Studies Cognitive Achievement Test for JS3. The reliability coefficient of the test was 0.76 obtained using Kuder Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20). One hundred items were developed and validated, and after validation and trial testing it was reduced to seventy (70) items which were analyzed to determine the item difficulty, item discrimination and effectiveness of distracters. It was found that 58 items had appropriate item difficulty index, 70 items had positive discrimination index, and 70 items distracted effectively. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyse research question five, and it was found that the items of the developed Social Studies Achievement Test did not deviate from the core curriculum; the developed Social Studies Achievement Test for junior secondary schools has high psychometric properties in terms of difficulty and discrimination indices, the instrument as high reliability coefficient. Based on these result, it was recommended, among others, that the developed Social Studies Achievement Test should be used by Social Studies teachers in Ekiti State and beyond; the items of the Social Studies Achievement Test developed should serve as a template for the development of other achievement tests in Social Studies, and indeed other subjects.

Keywords: Development, Validation, Reliability, Social studies, Test, Achievement.