equating test scores is an important issue in large scale testing. almost all standardized tests have several forms which vary in difficulty. new forms are written and added every year. when the items in different forms of a test vary in difficulty, direct comparison of test-takers who have taken different forms and are at the same ability level is not possible; hence, the issue of test fairnes...

BACKGROUND Examinations are necessary for assessment of student proficiency in medical education, but comparison of achievement across different cohorts in different tests is challenging. We applied psychometric test equating methods to compare student proficiency in two different examinations for a clinical anesthesiology course. METHODS Each examination contained 50 multiple choice items an...

This paper examined various factors affecting linking accuracy of the augmented tests containing both common assessments and state-specific item sets in the context of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Linking was conducted using the common-item nonequivalent groups design with pseudo and simulated data. The factors included group ability differences, differential effect sizes, latent-tra...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the hybrid Levine equipercentile (Hybrid LE) and modified frequency estimation (MFE) equating methods in improving accuracy of equating as compared to the percentile rank frequency estimation (FE), kernel frequency estimation (Kernel FE) and percentile rank chained equipercentile (CE) equating methods under the common-item nonequiva...

The nonequivalent groups with anchor test (NEAT) equating design are traditionally based on using a single to adjust for differences in difficulty which is critical forms most large-scale testing programs. When tests differ somewhat content and length, methods the item response theory (IRT) model leads greater stability of results. current study compared standard errors, bias, root mean square ...

Many studies have investigated the topic of change or drift in item parameter estimates in the context of item response theory (IRT). Content effects, such as instructional variation and curricular emphasis, as well as context effects, such as the wording, position, or exposure of an item have been found to impact item parameter estimates. The issue becomes more critical when items with estimat...