Technical and practical issues in equating: A discussion of four papers

Abstract

Many of the articles on equating that have appeared during the last 35 years have been concerned with the development and exposition of alternative models of equating, their error functions, and their robustness in the face of violations of the assumptions basic to their development. The four papers presented here are somewhat different. Their purpose, generally, is to go beyond theory, to examine the implications of special problems observed in the application of equating methodology, to search for clarifications and improvements in technique, and to investigate ways in which equating methods may be applied to practical testing problems. Each paper addresses a different set of problems; the present discussion will not attempt to find common issues among them, but will consider each separately in serial order.