An open source tool to verify the psychometric properties of an evaluation instrument

Professionals of education are constantly developing new instruments of evaluation. Even though the use of all sorts of evaluation tools increased during the last decades, it is often difficult for teachers to verify the qualities of their instruments. To provide a solution to this problem, we have developed a free, user-friendly Excel add-in (EIRT), based on Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory. Item analyses are performed without the requirement of being a computer expert. The objective of this paper is to present this new item analysis program aimed to verify the psychometric properties of an evaluation tool.