In developing the national tests in Social Studies, a critical issue is to ensure that the items work in the same way for different classifications of students, i.e. that the test fair and show no signs of severe Differential Item Functioning (DIF). Social Studies is a mandatory subject in the Swedish compulsory school, covering a wider range of content than, for instance, the subject of Civics. In Sweden, the national tests are intended to be digitalized and the proportions of items with selected response format are also intended to increase. As a consequence, the proportion of items with a constructed response format will decrease. It is important analyse the consequences of this shift for different subgroups of students. However, preliminary analyses (Löfstedt & Bergh, 2025) show that there are indeed DIF across genders with respect to different item formats, where boys commonly find selected response item formats easier compared to girls. In addition, in a forthcoming article (Löfstedt & Bergh, 2026) it is concluded that there is a risk that students following the syllabus of Swedish as a second language to be disadvantaged compared to the general student population, if the proportion of selected response items is increased. The purpose of this study is to analyse DIF across genders and Swedish language syllabus groups, taking into account potential subgroup interactions. The study is based on data from the Swedish national test in Social Studies collected in 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023. The data are analysed by means of the Polytomous Rasch Model (Rasch, 1960/1980; Andrich, 1978). The results reveal that there are indeed important DIF effects across genders and Swedish language syllabus groups, having significant implications for subgroups of students. Thus, as the test result influences the student’s final subject grade, the results of this study may have implications for student opportunities for upper secondary school program admission. However, the patterns are clarified by also taking into account the subgroup interactions (gender by Swedish language syllabus) in the DIF analyses. In addition, consequences of the item format shift are discussed from a test dimensionality perspective.

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