The Rasch model, named after Georg Rasch, is a psychometric model for analyzing categorical data, such as answers to questions on a reading assessment or questionnaire responses, as a function of the trade-off between (a) the respondent’s abilities, attitudes or personality traits and (b) the item difficulty. For example, they may be used to estimate a student’s reading ability, or the extremity of a person’s attitude to capital punishment from responses on a questionnaire. In addition to psychometrics and educational research, the Rasch model and its extensions are used in other areas, including the health profession and market research because of their general applicability. The mathematical theory underlying Rasch models is a special case of item response theory and, more generally, a special case of a generalized linear model. However, there are important differences in the interpretation of the model parameters and its philosophical implications that separate proponents of the Rasch model from the item response modeling tradition. A central aspect of this divide relates to the role of specific objectivity, a defining property of the Rasch model according to Georg Rasch, as a requirement for successful measurement.
➚ “Item Response Theory” … Rasch Model