The Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) is an innovative performance-based testing program covering reading, writing, language usage, mathematics, science, and social studies. MSPAP is administered annually on a census basis to students in Grades 3, 5, and 8, and the results are used for high-stakes, yearly evaluations of school performance and for tracking school improvement. The present article describes the program design and highlights its psychometric characteristics with respect to scaling, equating, standard setting, score accuracy, and validity.
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