This paper presents an approach to standard setting that combines the prototype group method (PGM; Eckes, 2012) with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The combined PGM-ROC approach is applied to setting cut scores on a placement test of English as a foreign language (EFL). To implement the PGM, experts first named learners whom…

Testlets are subsets of test items that are based on the same stimulus and are administered together. Tests that contain testlets are in widespread use in language testing, but they also share a fundamental problem: Items within a testlet are locally dependent with possibly adverse consequences for test score interpretation and use. Building on…