Effort-moderated (E-M) scoring is intended to estimate how well a disengaged test taker would have performed had they been fully engaged. It accomplishes this adjustment by excluding disengaged responses from scoring and estimating performance from the remaining responses. The scoring method, however, assumes that the remaining responses are not…

Linking score scales across different tests is considered speculative and fraught, even at the aggregate level. We introduce and illustrate validation methods for aggregate linkages, using the challenge of linking U.S. school district average test scores across states as a motivating example. We show that aggregate linkages can be validated both…