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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Validity and fairness of a new entry diagnostics test in higher education economics

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Abstract Research has been focusing increasingly on measuring students’ prior economic knowledge in higher education. However, in German-speaking countries, valid instruments are rare. A diagnostic study investigated the validity and fairness of an internationally established economic knowledge test (adapted German version of TUCE IV and TEL IV) with a representative sample of 7664 students from 46 universities across Germany. Previous findings with the dataset ( Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al., 2019a ) suggest that native language significantly predicts missing answers in the knowledge test. Similar effects can be found for gender. After coding missing answers as incorrect, students with a native language other than German and females are disadvantaged. Using multiple imputation, group differences are still significant but to a lesser extent. This approach is critically discussed in terms of valid diagnostics and assessment in higher education.