Cronbach and Rasch

In a "Fireside Chat" during the 1992 AERA Annual Meeting, Lee J. Cronbach remarked on his only meeting with Georg Rasch. In 1955, Cronbach was commissioned by the Office of Naval Research to travel to Europe, meet the leading researchers in educational measurement and report back on interesting ideas. While in Copenhagen, Denmark, Cronbach met with Rasch who was then doing bio-assay work for the Serum Institute. Writing enthusiastically with chalk on a blackboard, Rasch started to explain the multiplicative form of his model. But in almost the first sentence he stated that "our scales have an absolute zero". This immediately alienated Cronbach because he had recently been in dispute with Louis Guttman and Jane Loevinger on the existence and nature of natural zeroes. Consequently, when Cronbach submitted his report on his return from Europe, he felt that Rasch's work had so little merit that he did not even give it a note. As a result it was 12 years before Rasch's work came to the notice of the American educational measurement community.

Cronbach's current [1992] opinion is that the Rasch model works well for messy data. He perceives its chief drawback to be its insistence on uni-dimensionality, and its incompatibility with multi-dimensionality.

[These shortcomings are demanded as necessities in all ordinary measurement devices!]

Cronbach and Rasch. L. J. Cronbach … Rasch Measurement Transactions, 1992, 6:1, 200



Rasch Publications
Rasch Measurement Transactions (free, online) Rasch Measurement research papers (free, online) Probabilistic Models for Some Intelligence and Attainment Tests, Georg Rasch
Applying the Rasch Model 2nd. Ed., Bond & Fox Best Test Design, Wright & Stone Rating Scale Analysis, Wright & Masters
Introduction to Rasch Measurement, E. Smith & R. Smith Introduction to Many-Facet Rasch Measurement, Thomas Eckes Invariant Measurement: Using Rasch Models in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences, George Engelhard, Jr.
Statistical Analyses for Language Testers, Rita Green Rasch Models: Foundations, Recent Developments, and Applications, Fischer & Molenaar Journal of Applied Measurement

To be emailed about new material on www.rasch.org
please enter your email address here:

I want to Subscribe: & click below
I want to Unsubscribe: & click below

Please set your SPAM filter to accept emails from Rasch.org

www.rasch.org welcomes your comments:

Your email address (if you want us to reply):

 

ForumRasch Measurement Forum to discuss any Rasch-related topic

Go to Top of Page
Go to index of all Rasch Measurement Transactions
AERA members: Join the Rasch Measurement SIG and receive the printed version of RMT
Some back issues of RMT are available as bound volumes
Subscribe to Journal of Applied Measurement

Go to Institute for Objective Measurement Home Page. The Rasch Measurement SIG (AERA) thanks the Institute for Objective Measurement for inviting the publication of Rasch Measurement Transactions on the Institute's website, www.rasch.org.

Coming Rasch-related Events
May 15-17, 2013, Wed.-Fri. In-person workshop: Introductory Rasch (A. Tennant, RUMM), Leeds, UK, www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/rehabmed/psychometric
May 20-22, 2013, Mon.-Wed. In-person workshop: Intermediate Rasch (A. Tennant, RUMM), Leeds, UK, www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/rehabmed/psychometric
May 31 - June 28, 2013, Fri.-Fri. On-line workshop: Practical Rasch Measurement - Core Topics (E. Smith, Winsteps), www.statistics.com
June 7, 2013, Fri. SPHERE workshop: Response-Shift and subjective measures in health science, Nantes, France, www.sphere-nantes.fr/
June 19-21, 2013, Wed.-Fri. SIS 2013 Conference on Advances in Latent Variables: Methods, Models and Applications, Brescia, Italy, meetings.sis-statistica.org/index.php/sis2013/ALV
July 1 - Nov. 30, 2013, Mon.-Sun. Online Course: Introduction to Rasch Measurement Theory (D. Andrich, RUMM), uwa.edu.au
July 5 - Aug. 2, 2013, Fri.-Fri. On-line workshop: Practical Rasch Measurement - Further Topics (E. Smith, Winsteps), www.statistics.com
Aug.1-5, 2013, Thur.-Mon. TERA-PROMS Annual Meeting, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, tera.education.nsysu.edu.tw
Aug. 9 - Sept. 6, 2013, Fri.-Fri. On-line workshop: Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (E. Smith, Facets), www.statistics.com
Aug. 22, 2013, Thursday. Symposium in honor of Svend Kreiner, Copenhagen, Denmark, biostat.ku.dk/kreinersymposium
Sept. 4-6, 2013, Wed.-Fri. IMEKO TC1-TC7-TC13 Symposium: Measurement Across Physical and Behavioural Sciences, Genoa, Italy, www.imeko-genoa-2013.it
Sept. 13 - Oct. 11, 2013, Fri.-Fri. On-line workshop: Rasch Applications in Clinical Assessment, Survey Research, and Educational Measurement (W.P. Fisher), www.statistics.com
Sept. 18-20, 2013, Wed.-Fri. In-person workshop: Introductory Rasch (A. Tennant, RUMM), Leeds, UK, www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/rehabmed/psychometric
Sept. 23-25, 2013, Mon.-Wed. In-person workshop: Intermediate Rasch (A. Tennant, RUMM), Leeds, UK, www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/rehabmed/psychometric
Sept. 26-27, 2013, Thurs.-Fri. In-person workshop: Advanced Rasch (A. Tennant, RUMM), Leeds, UK, www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/rehabmed/psychometric
Oct. 18 - Nov. 15, 2013, Fri.-Fri. On-line workshop: Practical Rasch Measurement - Core Topics (E. Smith, Winsteps), www.statistics.com
Oct. 20 - Oct. 25, 2013, Sun.-Fri. International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA) 39th Annual Conference, Tel Aviv, Israel, www.iaea-2013.com
Dec. 11-13, 2013, Wed.-Fri. In-person workshop: Introductory Rasch (A. Tennant, RUMM), Leeds, UK, www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/rehabmed/psychometric
March 12-14, 2014, Wed.-Fri. In-person workshop: Introductory Rasch (A. Tennant, RUMM), Leeds, UK, www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/rehabmed/psychometric
May 14-16, 2014, Wed.-Fri. In-person workshop: Introductory Rasch (A. Tennant, RUMM), Leeds, UK, www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/rehabmed/psychometric
May 19-21, 2013, Mon.-Wed. In-person workshop: Intermediate Rasch (A. Tennant, RUMM), Leeds, UK, www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/rehabmed/psychometric
July 4 - Aug. 1, 2014, Fri.-Fri. On-line workshop: Practical Rasch Measurement - Further Topics (E. Smith, Winsteps), www.statistics.com
Aug. 8 - Sept. 5, 2014, Fri.-Fri. On-line workshop: Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (E. Smith, Facets), www.statistics.com
Sept. 10-12, 2014, Wed.-Fri. In-person workshop: Introductory Rasch (A. Tennant, RUMM), Leeds, UK, www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/rehabmed/psychometric
Sept. 12 - Oct. 10, 2014, Fri.-Fri. On-line workshop: Rasch Applications in Clinical Assessment, Survey Research, and Educational Measurement (W.P. Fisher), www.statistics.com
Sept. 15-17, 2014, Mon.-Wed. In-person workshop: Intermediate Rasch (A. Tennant, RUMM), Leeds, UK, www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/rehabmed/psychometric
Sept. 18-19, 2014, Thurs.-Fri. In-person workshop: Advanced Rasch (A. Tennant, RUMM), Leeds, UK, www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/rehabmed/psychometric
The javascript to add "Coming Rasch-related Events" to your webpage is:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.rasch.org/events.txt"></script>


The URL of this page is www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt61c.htm

Website: www.rasch.org/rmt/contents.htm