Assessments consisting of only a few extended constructed response items (essays) are not typically equated using anchor test designs as there are typically too few essay prompts in each form to allow for meaningful equating. This article explores the idea that output from an automated scoring program designed to measure writing fluency (a common…

Views on testing--its purpose and uses and how its data are analyzed--are related to one's perspective on test takers. Test takers can be viewed as learners, examinees, or contestants. I briefly discuss the perspective of test takers as learners. I maintain that much of psychometrics views test takers as examinees. I discuss test takers as a…

Both theoretical and practical considerations have led the revision of the Graduate Record Examinations® (GRE®) revised General Test, here called the rGRE, to adopt a multistage adaptive design that will be continuously or nearly continuously administered and that can provide immediate score reporting. These circumstances sharply constrain the…

In this study, we investigated whether preequating results agree with equating results that are based on observed operational data (postequating) for a college placement program. Specifically, we examined the degree to which item response theory (IRT) true score preequating results agreed with those from IRT true score postequating and from…

A generic approach in automated essay scoring produces scores that have the same meaning across all prompts, existing or new, of a writing assessment. This is accomplished by using a single set of linguistic indicators (or features), a consistent way of combining and weighting these features into essay scores, and a focus on features that are not…

Test disclosure legislation in New York State (LaValle Act) has had a major impact on the national testing programs administered by Educational Testing Services (ETS) for various sponsoring organizations. The paper reviews the immediate operational effects of test disclosure in the following areas: (1) increase in number of test forms developed;…

Graduate Record Examination and Miller Analogies Test scores were equated using linear transformation and regression methods. Standard deviations of regression equivalence scores were consistently smaller than those actually obtained in the sample, whereas standard deviations of linear equivalence scores were the same as those in the sample.…

MAT and GRE scores were equated by regression, conditional mean, linear and equipercentile methods using data from a sample that had taken both tests. The regression and linear methods were preferred, and shown to be equivalent when the correlation between scales is perfect. (Author/RL)

This paper described one part of an item response theory (IRT) feasibility study performed for the Aptitude Test portion of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE). The dimensionality of the GRE verbal and analytical sections is discussed. The results of six different types of equating of the verbal section and four different types of equating of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility of using item response theory (IRT) methods to equate different forms of three College Board Achievement Tests (Biology, American History and Social Studies, and Mathematics Level II) and one Graduate Record Examinations Achievement Test (Advanced Biology), rather than conventional or…

Linear conversions were developed relating scores on recent forms of the Graduate Record Examinations. Conversions based on specially selected subpopulations were compared with total-group conversions and evaluated. Conclusions indicated that the data clearly support the assumption of population independence for homogenoeous tests, but not quite…

When two different forms of a particular test are given to different groups of candidates, it is often necessary to make the test results for the two tests or groups as comparable as possible; the statistical process used for this purpose is termed equating. Two different methods of equating Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Advanced Tests were…

A study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of using item response theory (IRT) equating to reduce test form overlap of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Subject Test in Mathematics. Monte Carlo methods were employed to compare double-part equating with 20-item common item blocks to triple-part equating with 10-item common item blocks.…

This report summarizes the results from two studies. The first assessed the comparability of scores derived from linear computer-based (CBT) and computer adaptive (CAT) versions of the three Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test measures. A verbal CAT was taken by 1,507, a quantitative CAT by 1,354, and an analytical CAT by 995…

In October 1981, the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Program introduced a new version of the General Test (GT) that differed from the previous version in three major ways. The GT was altered to: reduce the verbal measure's speededness and allow the addition of several quantitative items; delete two item types from the analytical measure; and…