Jim Adams stressed the Commission's interest in the fairness issue. Dr. Yopp said ETS places a great deal of emphasis on making sure tests are not biased and said that the tests go through many stages of sensitivity analysis. Historically, tests are written to assess median performance. Students are given tests with questions that have been pre-tested for the average ability of students to get the right answer. With new technology, Computer Adaptive Tests measure student performance for each question and tracks each student's precise ability level.
CATs allow for year-round and continuous testing.
Students can see their scores right away. Students are monitored by two monitors and with cameras during the test. To support the validity of the tests, ETS has audit standards for equality and fairness. The tests are reviewed by outside organizations, and ETS continually monitors to make sure the test is measuring what it was meant to measure. ETS provides information to the score users and test takers about the appropriate uses of test scores.