Assessing statistical literacy and statistical reasoning: The reali instrument

Statistical literacy and statistical reasoning are important learning goals that instructors aim to develop in statistics students. However, there is a lack of clarity regarding the relationship among these learning goals and to what extent they overlap. The REasoning and Literacy Instrument (REALI) was designed to concurrently measure statistical literacy and reasoning. This paper reports the development process of the REALI assessment, which included test blueprint, expert review, item categorization, pilot and field testing, and data analysis to identify what measurement model best represents the constructs of statistical literacy and reasoning given the criteria of fit and parsimony. The results suggested that statistical literacy and reasoning can be measured effectively by the REALI assessment with high score precision.