This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Li, H. Articles by Wainer, H. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Teacher’s Corner: Toward a Coherent View of Reliability in Test Theory

University of Rochester

Howard Wainer

Educational Testing Service

Reliability of test scores, as estimated through measures of internal consistency, has been characterized mathematically in many ways that appear, on the surface at least, to be very dissimilar to one another. In this essay we provide a general mathematical framework that specializes to four different reliability coefficients. Through consideration of this general framework it becomes easier to convey to students both the individual character of the different formulations of reliability and the extent of their underlying similarity. In addition to providing a coherent view of reliability, the unified formula is also found to be a convenient vehicle for introducing more specialized topics, such as the Kaiser-Guttman rule.

Key Words: analysis of variance • Armor’s theta • coefficient alpha • reliability • Spearman-Brown formula

Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, Vol. 22, No. 4, 478-484 (1997)
DOI: 10.3102/10769986022004478


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				H. Li The Resolution of Some Paradoxes Related to Reliability and Validity Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, January 1, 2003; 28(2): 89 - 95. [Abstract] [PDF]