Linking and Aligning Scores and Scales Statistics for Social and Behavioral Sciences

The comparability of measurements made in differing circumstances by different methods and investigators is a fundamental pre-condition for all of science. Successful applications of technology require comparable measurements. While the applications herefocus on educational tests, score linking issues are directly applicable to medicine and many branches of behavioral science.

Since the 1980s, the fields of educational and psychological measurement have enhanced and widely applied techniques for producing linked scores that are comparable. The interpretation attached to a linkage depends on how the conditions of the linkage differ from the ideal. In this book, experts in statistics and psychometrics describe classes of linkages, the history of score linkings, data collection designs, and methods used to achieve sound score linkages.

They describe and critically discuss applications to a variety of domains including equating of achievement exams, linkages between computer-delivered exams and paper-and-pencil exams, concordances between the current version of the SAT and its predecessor, concordances between the ACT and the SAT, vertical linkages of exams that span grade levels, and linkages of scales from high-stakes state assessments to the scales of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).