In equating research and practice, equating functions that are smooth are typically assumed to be more accurate than equating functions with irregularities. This assumption presumes that population test score distributions are relatively smooth. In this study, two examples were used to reconsider common beliefs about smoothing and equating. The…

Nonparametric, or kernel, estimation of item response curve (IRC) is a concern theoretically and operationally. Accuracy of this estimation, often used in item analysis in testing programs, is biased when the observed scores are used as the regressor because the observed scores are contaminated by measurement error. In this study, we investigate…

This study used real data to construct testing conditions for comparing results of chained linear, Tucker, and Levine-observed score equatings. The comparisons were made under conditions where the new- and old-form samples were similar in ability and when they differed in ability. The length of the anchor test was also varied to enable examination…