Edited by Spiros Papageorgiou and Venessa F. Manna
Research on how stakeholders interpret language test scores and how they make decisions about language proficiency is critical because score-based decisions can be extremely consequential for test takers, score users, such as educational institutions and employers, and the society overall. This… read more
This chapter is the last of the three chapters that describe the process of design and implementation of a vertical linking project for language tests based on a multi-year project for the TOEFL® Family of Assessments. The chapter focuses on the statistical methodology for developing the… read more
The TOEFL ProPlacer® test is a multistage adaptive test (MST) designed to rapidly distinguish among learners at different proficiency levels and to place them into English instruction courses that best suit their learning needs. The project reported in this chapter aimed to establish the mapping… read more
The primary motivation for administering a language test is to use its scores to facilitate decisions of various kinds about language proficiency. Score-based decisions can be extremely consequential, both for test takers but also for test score users, such as universities and employers, and… read more
To support decisions about readiness to take a test in the TOEFL® Family of Assessments, a multi-year project was launched in 2017 to explore the possibility of expressing scores across multiple tests on a single, consistently interpreted scale by applying vertical linking procedures. This… read more
A scale anchoring approach (Beaton & Allen, 1992) was initially used to develop empirically-based listening and reading performance descriptors for the TOEFL iBT® test, to help interpret scores. To further facilitate score interpretation, scores were also mapped to the Common European Framework… read more
