Assessment Development

A cross-functional team of researchers, instructional design specialists, software engineers, psychometricians, content experts and item writers create and validate your assessment.

Test creation

We have produced more than 180 test titles, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for the U.S. Department of Education, the AP^® and the SAT^® tests for the College Board^®, as well as state and district assessments. We leverage our research to suggest innovative test designs, new item types, new measurement and data analysis techniques to support smarter tests for students.

Test innovations

Our research innovations contribute to the field of educational measurement. ETS's scientific contributions to testing include:

• co-invention of Item Response Theory
• contributions to modern validity theory
• development of approach to causal modeling from observational data or performance assessment
• invention of the Differential Item Functioning (DIF), a method for detecting test bias or unfairness
• creation of the holistic scoring for writing assessment
• invention of the Angoff Method for standard setting
• development of methods for evidence-centered design
• contributions to the design of computer-adaptive testing
• application of Artificial Intelligence in test-scoring protocols

Looking forward

ETS continues to contribute to the field and apply the results of our research to the tests we develop. Our current research includes:

• development of technology-enhanced test items
• creation of simulation-based assessments
• expansion of game-based models for assessing learning and performance
• development of interactive spoken-language assessment tools
• design of assessments that measure noncognitive behaviors such as engagement and socioemotional learning
• development of biometrics-based user authentication for enhanced test security