Proficiency with written communication (WC) is critical for success in college and careers. As a result, institutions face a growing challenge to accurately evaluate their students' writing skills to obtain data that can support demands of accreditation, accountability, or curricular improvement. Many current standardized measures, however, lack…

Maintaining score stability is crucial for an ongoing testing program that administers several tests per year over many years. One way to stall the drift of the score scale is to use an equating design with multiple links. In this study, we use the operational and experimental SAT® data collected from 44 administrations to investigate the effect…

This study examined the relationship between students' self-reported high school grade point average (HSGPA) from the SAT Questionnaire and their HSGPA provided by the colleges and universities they attend. The purpose of this research was to offer updated information on the relatedness of self-reported (by the student) and school-reported (by the…

In connection with the new SAT that was introduced in March 2005, research has been under way to investigate the feasibility of providing examinees with score reports that contain feedback on skills measured by the critical reading, mathematics, and writing sections of the test. The main purpose of this study was to estimate the reliability of the…

It is sometimes sensible to think of the fundamental unit of test construction as being larger than an individual item. This unit, dubbed the testlet, must pass muster in the same way that items do. One criterion of a good item is the absence of differential item functioning (DIF). The item must function in the same way as all important…

Based on statistics from the first few administrations of the SAT writing section, the test is performing as expected. The reliability of the writing section is very similar to that of other writing assessments. Based on preliminary validity research, the writing section is expected to add modestly to the prediction of college performance when…

Previous research has studied the effects of different methods of item option weighting on the reliability and concurrent and predictive validity of achievement tests. Increases in reliability are generally found, but with mixed results for validity. Several methods of producing option weights, (i.e., Guttman internal and external weights and…

To assess the stability of the Scholastic Aptitude Test verbal score scale SAT--V, 1963 and 1973 forms of the SAT--V were administered in counterbalanced order to spaced samples of the same group. The 1973 scores were placed on the reporting scale used for the 1963 form. The experimentally derived scores on the 1963 scale were compared with their…

This study investigated the impact on ethnic, language, and gender groups of a new kind of essay prompt type intended for use with the new SAT®. The study also generated estimates of the reliability of scores obtained using the prompts examined. To examine the impact of a new prompt type, random samples of eleventh-grade students in 49…