Smoothing techniques are designed to improve the accuracy of equating functions. The main purpose of this study is to compare seven model selection strategies for choosing the smoothing parameter (C) for polynomial loglinear presmoothing and one procedure for model selection in cubic spline postsmoothing for mixed-format pseudo tests under the…

The major purpose of this study is to examine the quality of ratings assigned to CR (constructed-response) questions in large-scale assessments from the perspective of Rasch Measurement Theory. Rasch Measurement Theory provides a framework for the examination of rating scale category structure that can yield useful information for interpreting the…

The equity properties can be used to assess the quality of an equating. The degree to which expected scores conditional on ability are similar between test forms is referred to as first-order equity. Second-order equity is the degree to which conditional standard errors of measurement are similar between test forms after equating. The purpose of…

Mixed-format assessments are increasingly being used in large scale standardized assessments to measure a continuum of skills ranging from basic recall to higher order thinking skills. These assessments are usually comprised of a combination of (a) multiple-choice items which can be efficiently scored, have stable psychometric properties, and…

Dorans and Holland (2000) and von Davier, Holland, and Thayer (2003) introduced measures of the degree to which an observed-score equating function is sensitive to the population on which it is computed. This article extends the findings of Dorans and Holland and of von Davier et al. to item response theory (IRT) true-score equating methods that…

The College Board's Advanced Placement European History examination has evolved over the course of its first half-century of existence in virtually all respects: the types and subject matter of questions asked (and not asked); the nature of the history those questions reflect; the number of questions both offered and to be answered, as well as how…

The comparability of scores on test forms that are constructed through examinee item choice is examined in an item response theory framework. The approach is illustrated with data from the College Board's Advanced Placement Test in Chemistry taken by over 18,000 examinees. (SLD)

An increasingly popular test format allows examinees to choose the items they will answer from among a larger set. When examinee choice is allowed fairness requires that the different test forms thus formed be equated for their possible differential difficulty. For this equating to be possible it is necessary to know how well examinees would have…

The Advanced Placement (AP) program is a cooperative educational effort of secondary schools, colleges, and the College Board that consists of 30 college-level courses and examinations in 17 academic disciplines for highly motivated students in secondary schools. AP courses are offered in more than 11,000 high schools and are recognized by nearly…

The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is currently investigating the feasibility and advisability of administering a computerized Law School Admission Test (LSAT). In this context, using data from the College Boards 1989 National Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry Examination for 18,462 test takers and a survey of all AP Chemistry teachers in…

The accuracy with which expert systems (ESs) score a new nonmultiple-choice free-response test item was investigated, using 734 high school students who were administered an advanced-placement computer science examination. ESs produced scores for 82 percent to 95 percent of the responses and displayed high agreement with a human reader on the…