Assessment of Teacher's Skills in Classroom Assessment Practices Using IRT Models in Keffi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State-Nigeria

This paper assesses teachers' skill in classroom assessment practices using irt models in Keffi local government area of Nasarawa state. Teaching is a multifaceted process that requires teacher competencies in measurement and assessment skills. Teachers are key catalyst of the education process, their instructional and classroom assessment practices are a means by which the education system is enhanced such skills may include: test planning and construction; grading; interpretation of test results; use of assessment results to inform teaching and learning; interpretation of standardized tests; and communicating results to relevant stakeholders. Three (3) research questions were used in relation to 3 hypotheses. Data were collected from a sample of (n = 87) teachers selected from government senior secondary schools in Keffi LGA of Nasarawa State. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions while chi-square (x2) statistics was used to test formulated hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significant. Item response theory models were used to identify teacher response on items that measured their self-skill in classroom assessment practices. Results of the study showed that generally teachers felt more skilled in test construction than other practices such as using classroom assessment results to make informed decisions in their teaching and learning process. Implications of these findings for policy makers and school managers are discussed.