A computer program was developed to estimate speed-accuracy response models for dichotomous items. This report describes how the models are estimated and how to specify data and input files. An example using data from a listening section of an international language test is described to illustrate the modeling approach and features of the computer…

Few would doubt that ETS researchers have contributed more to the general topic of item response theory (IRT) than individuals from any other institution. In this report, we briefly review most of those contributions, dividing them into sections by decades of publication, beginning with early work by Fred Lord and Bert Green in the 1950s and…

In this research, we investigated the feasibility of implementing the "e-rater"® scoring engine as a check score in place of all-human scoring for the "Graduate Record Examinations"® ("GRE"®) revised General Test (rGRE) Analytical Writing measure. This report provides the scientific basis for the use of e-rater as a…

This review paper constitutes the first step within a larger research effort to develop an interactive pragmatics learning tool for second and foreign language (L2) learners and users of English. The tool will primarily endeavor to support pragmatics learning within the language use domain "workplace." Given this superordinate objective,…

In this research, we investigated the suitability of implementing "e-rater"® automated essay scoring in a high-stakes large-scale English language testing program. We examined the effectiveness of generic scoring and 2 variants of prompt-based scoring approaches. Effectiveness was evaluated on a number of dimensions, including agreement…

The two purposes of this paper are to provide a SAS IML macro that performs loglinear smoothing and to apply this macro to loglinear smoothing problems that have not been extensively discussed in the test-equating literature. The SAS macro is demonstrated on univariate, bivariate, and trivariate smoothing problems. The univariate and bivariate…

This study focuses on the relationship between item modeling and evidence-centered design (ECD); it considers how an appropriately generalized item modeling software tool can support systematic identification and exploitation of task-model variables, and then examines the feasibility of this goal, using linear-equation items as a test case. The…