For agencies that deliver high-stakes Second Language (L2) proficiency exams, a research agenda has been undertaken for years to examine the role of rater, task, and rubric as sources of variability into their performance assessments (Lee, 2006; Sawaki & Sinharay, 2013; Xi, 2007; Xi & Mollaun, 2006). However, these challenges are more acute for less-resourced institutions using L2 performance assessments for making score-based interpretations about test-takers, such as a language program making decisions based on placement test scores (Bachman, et. al, 1996; Sawaki & Xi, 2019; Vafaee & Yaghmaeyan, 2020). In such cases, the question becomes a veritable cost-benefit analysis, weighing the benefits of improving score dependability and practical constraints associated with time, cost, and resources (Bachman & Palmer, 1996). Considering this challenge, the current study investigates test score variance and dependability on two performance assessment tasks from a writing section on an English language program placement exam. The organization that administers the exam, the Community Language Program (CLP), operated within Teacher College, Columbia University's in conjunction with its in Applied Linguistic and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), uses test scores from this exam to assign the test takers to a particular English as a Second Language (ESL) class at an appropriate proficiency level.