Item response theory and classical test theory: an empirical comparison

Despite theoretical differences between item response theory (IRT) and classical test theory (CTT), there is a lack of empirical knowledge about how, and to what extent, the IRTand CTT-based item and person statistics behave differently. This study empirically examined the behaviors of the item and person statistics derived from these two measurement frameworks. The study focused on two issues: (a) What are the empirical relationships between IRTand CTT-based item and person statistics? and (b) To what extent are the item statistics from IRT and those from CTT invariant across different participant samples? A large-scale statewide assessment database was used in the study. The findings indicate that the person and item statistics derived from the two measurement frameworks are quite comparable. The degree of invariance of item statistics across samples, usually considered as the theoretical superiority IRT models, also appeared to be similar for the two measurement frameworks.