Standardisation is a procedure used by Awarding Organisations to maximise marking reliability, by teaching examiners to consistently judge scripts using a mark scheme. However, research shows that people are better at comparing two objects than judging each object individually. Consequently, Oxford, Cambridge and RSA (OCR, a UK awarding…

A study was conducted to determine the extent to which high school and college/university Advanced Placement English Language and Composition readers value and implement the curricular requirements of Advanced Placement English Language and Composition. The participants were 158 readers of the 2010 Advanced Placement English Language and…

The graded response (GR) model of Samejima (1969) and the partial credit model (PC) of Masters (1982) were fitted to identical writing samples that were holistically scored. The performance and relative benefits of each model were then evaluated. Writing samples were both expository and narrative. Data were from statewide assessments of secondary…

The similarity of information provided by direct and indirect methods of writing assessment was investigated using 219 tenth graders. A resulting cognitive model of writing skills indicates that practitioners interested in reliably measuring all aspects of the proposed writing process continuum use both direct and indirect methods. (TJH)

It was concluded, in an empirical study of distributions of examination scores within secondary schools in Karachi, Pakistan, that intraschool inequalities in student achievement were relatively large; that variables for socioeconomic background and school policy did not explain the intraschool variations across schools; and that a school which…