White Papers

Our collection of white papers, written by our own industry experts and psychometricians, include the latest industry research and best practices.

A Gentle Introduction to Automated Scoring

by Corey Palermo, Ph.D. (October, 2017)
"Automated scoring also offers a variety of benefits for assessment of learning. One benefit is that it is much faster than scoring by teachers or professional raters; once models have been generated, responses can be scored in seconds. This allows assessment results to be available to stakeholders very rapidly. A second benefit is that automated scoring tends to be as accurate or more accurate than multiple professional raters. Furthermore, automated‐scoring engines are perfectly reliable in ways that raters are not—an automated‐scoring engine will assign the same score to a response every time."

White Paper: PEG Changes

by Michael B. Bunch, Thomas Davis, Ann Hayes, Derek Justice, Julie St. John (July, 2017)
"MI continues to monitor advancements in the automated essay scoring field while searching for ways to make PEG as effective as possible in helping students learn to write. As a result, PEG will be ever-evolving."

The Case for Professional Learning Communities

by Tina B. Clayton (2017)
"A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a small group of professionals who continuously seek cutting-edge ideas and collaboratively evaluate how to best apply the new information to the work. The PLC operates under the assumption that to stay ahead of the competition, an organization must learn faster than the competition and consistently produce exceptional work."

Project Essay Grade (PEG) Current Usage and Research

by Shayne Miel (2014)
"With subsequent improvements in PEG and general advances in the reliability of machine scoring, artificial intelligence (AI) scoring has become a valuable, and in some cases, essential, tool in a variety of contexts."

The Future of Testing

by Michael B. Bunch, Ph.D (2013)
"The future still looks a lot like it did 25 years ago: cognitive-based assessment, online assessment, widespread use of computer adaptive testing, universal access to technology, and instantaneous reporting of test results. So many wonderful things, still within our view but just beyond our grasp!"

It Takes Three

by Michael B. Bunch, Ph.D (2012)
"Making sure all students are college and career ready requires not only an alignment of curriculum and instruction with college and career requirements but also an approach to monitoring student progress on a continual basis, with in-class formative assessments, frequent interim assessments, and focused summative assessments. Taken together, formative, interim, and summative assessments, aligned to Common Core State Standards (CCSS), will support instructional decision making and enhance daily learning activities.”

Aligning Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction

by Michael B. Bunch, Ph.D (2012)
"A key component of educational achievement test validation is alignment of the test to both curriculum and instruction. By alignment, we mean the degree to which the items of the test, both individually and collectively, match the structure and intent of the curriculum and instruction."