The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) makes possible comparison of groups of students and provides information about what these groups know and can do. The scale anchoring techniques described in this chapter address the latter purpose. The direct method and the smoothing method of scale anchoring are discussed. (SLD)

The need for scale linking in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is discussed, and the specific procedures used to carry out the linking in the context of the major analyses of the 1990 NAEP mathematics assessment are described. Issues remaining to be addressed are outlined. (SLD)