Abstract

SOARES, Denilson Junio Marques; SOARES, Talita Emidio Andrade  and  DOS SANTOS, Wagner. Psychometric quality analysis of the mathematics test of the brazilian National High School Examination from 2018. Rev. Actual. Investig. Educ [online]. 2021, vol.21, n.1, pp.86-115. ISSN 1409-4703.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/aie.v21i1.42338.

The Brazilian National High School Examination (ENEM), created in 1998 to assess the quality of education offered to young brazilians, has consolidated itself as the main access to the universities in Brazil. However, there are few studies aimed at analyzing the quality of the exam and the items that are in it. Thus, this paper aims to analyze the psychometric quality of the mathematics test of ENEM of 2018. It was used a quantitative and exploratory methodology, developed through psychometrics methods applied to 68,438 students that made the exam, enrolled in the last year of the high school. The results pointed to a reliable test (α>0.7). As for the items that compose it, four showed adjustment problems concerning to the logistic model of three parameters of the Theory of Response to the item (TRI), adopted by the exam, one showed a significantly lower coefficient of discrimination a<0.5 and five that showed a difficulty coefficient higher than those considered acceptable b>3.0 . These results lead us to conclude that a considerable number of the items analyzed (22.7%) showed unsatisfactory psychometric parameters. Bearing in mind that any reported inaccuracies may compromise the validity of the results obtained, it is suggested that the processes that involve the creation, review, testing and calibration of the items must be improved, in order to guarantee the isonomy of the exam.

Keywords : psychometry; statistical analysis; mathematics; evaluation.

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