Item parameter estimation under conditions of test speededness: Application of a mixture Rasch model with ordinal constraints

When tests are administered under fixed time constraints, test performances can be affected by speededness. Among other consequences, speededness can result in inaccurate parameter estimates in item response theory (IRT) models, especially for items located near the end of tests (Oshima, 1994). This article presents an IRT strategy for reducing contamination in item difficulty estimates due to speededness. Ordinal constraints are applied to a mixture Rasch model (Rost, 1990) so as to distinguish two latent classes of examinees: (a) a "speeded" class, comprised of examinees that had insufficient time to adequately answer end-of-test items, and (b) a "nonspeeded" class, comprised of examinees that had sufficient time to answer all items. The parameter estimates obtained for end-of-test items in the nonspeeded class are shown to more accurately approximate their difficulties when the items are administered at earlier locations on a different form of the test. A mixture model can also be used to estimate the class memberships of individual examinees. In this way, it can be determined whether membership in the speeded class is associated with other student characteristics. Results are reported for gender and ethnicity.