Linking Results of Distinct Assessments

With increased demands for various types of assessments-from the class- room use of individual student results to international comparisons-has come an expanded desire to use assessments for multiple purposes by linking results from distinct assessments. There is a desire to make comparisons from results on one assessment with those of another (e.g., the results from a state assessment vs. the results on a national or international assessment). The degree to which desired interpretations and inferences are justified, however, depends on the nature of the assessments being compared and the ways in which the linkage occurs. Five different types of linking (equating, calibra- tion, statistical moderation, prediction, and social moderation) are distin- guished. The characteristics of these types of linking, their requirements for the assessments being linked, and the comparative inferences they support are described.