The internal consistency reliability of scores in diploma in basic education examination conducted by the institute of education, UCC, Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the internal consistency reliability of the scores that students of Colleges of Education in Ghana obtain for the Diploma in Basic Education examination. The stratified random sampling technique was employed to select the scripts of 600 students for each examination paper from 12 Colleges of Education. The courses selected for the study were English (FDC121), Mathematics (FDC122) and Integrated Science (FDC124) whose examination was conducted in the second semester of the 2015/2016 academic year. Cronbach’s alpha was computed for the internal consistency reliability. The results showed a reasonably strong internal consistency indicating that candidates’ performance is reasonably consistent across items on each test paper and the items constituting a paper, to some extent, are homogeneous. However, it was observed that there was the need to improve upon the internal consistency of the scores. Consequently, it was recommended that the Institute of Education intensifies the orientation on test construction for item writers and conditions in the testing environment should be improved for efficient administration of the examinations.