This paper describes the basic concepts of linking educational assessments. Although it discusses statistical machinery for interpreting evidence about students' achievements, this paper's principal message is that linking tests is not just a technical problem. Technical questions can not be asked or answered until questions about the nature of…

The duplex design is proposed for educational assessment within a state school system. For individual students, scaled proficiency measures that are suitable for guidance and certification at various levels of attainment are provided. For classrooms or larger units, the design can supply group level measures for evaluation and research. (SLD)

In educational assessment, educators observe what students say, do, or make in a few particular circumstances and attempt to infer what they know, can do, or have accomplished more generally. A web of inference connects the two. Some connections depend on theories and experience concerning the targeted knowledge in the domain, how it is acquired,…

Educational assessment is reasoning from observations of what students do or make in a handful of particular circumstances, to what they know or can do more broadly. Practice has changed a great deal over the past century, in response to evolving conceptions of knowledge and its acquisition, views of schooling and its purposes, and technologies…

Scaling methodologies used in analysis of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) surveys since 1984 are reviewed. The plausible values methodology developed for NAEP scale-score analyses is described in the contexts of item response theory and average response method scaling. Current NAEP research in scaling is discussed. (SLD)