The folks at IELTS published a wonderful article last week week which “benchmarks and examines the scoring and equating practices across different language tests… for the purposes of professional registration and entry into university study leading to professional registration.”
The article is an interesting read. It describes how institutions often fail to follow the recommendations of test makers when it comes to setting score requirements (that is, they set requirements that are too low) and how institutions don’t seem to make use of score concordance tables provided by test makers when setting requirements for various tests.
The authors note that:
“It is worth considering the mixed messages that differing equivalence scores across tests and institutions sends to international students and education agents. Poor equivalence affects candidates with borderline proficiency, because people can simply locate an easier option via a poorly set equivalence score on another test without needing to improve their underlying English skills. Furthermore, poor test score equivalency means that some tests will appear better to take than others.”
And:
“To set a score too low may have consequences, because it can mislead individuals into believing they have the right skillsets to complete their study or to safely practice as professionals.”
The article goes on to talk about how low score requirements can impact the families and communities of test takers. It discusses how public safety can be affected by low test scores. It also mentions how low score requirements might cause people to lose confidence in their nation’s public institutions.
Indeed, it is noted that when institutions fail to reliably use language test scores “social order may be undermined.”
Can this be avoided? Yes, of course. The researchers note that:
“There is an opportunity for IELTS to lead the way, by linking with other test providers to provide a united front on what test scores to use and how to equate scores on different tests, and to produce the same equivalence table which would be displayed on each test-developer’s website. The equivalence could be jointly reviewed annually to ensure agreement between tests is met.”
More interestingly, the authors suggest that IELTS be switched to a 0-90 scale (increasing at 10-point increments), which would be easier for institutions to understand and equate to other tests.