What is Chronbach’s Alpha?

You see it in educational studies. You read and nod to yourself: “yes that makes sense, they determiner reliability of…”, but do you know it is being used correctly? How do people come up with with criteria like a 0.7 cut off? I’ve wondered about this and, honestly, still don’t understand Chronbach’s alpha well. However, this publication helped:

Jack Barbera, Nicole Naibert, Regis Komperda, and Thomas C. Pentecost
Journal of Chemical Education Article ASAP
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00183

It is a short and informative read. Importantly, it provides useful examples, simple explanations, and limitations of the use of Chronbach’s alpha. it is worth reading! I think I need more basic information about use cases now!

Calculators and instruments on table.
Evaluating the reliability of data collected from an assessment is critical in supporting the findings. Chronbach’s alpha is often used but the context and assumptions are also not well defined. The article by Barbera et al. is helpful. Image credit: WordPress free image library.