The BEAR Center, in partnership with the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), is developing valid, reliable, and psychometrically sound measures of discipline specific college readiness aligned with Common Core, AP Content, and NAGB/EPIC research findings, including laying out construct maps for Statistical Thinking and Algebraic Thinking, developing items to assess each of these strands, and designing a pretest and posttest for use in the field.

In addition, BEAR will take the lead in data analysis of the pilot and field test data. BEAR will perform unidimensional, and possibly multidimensional, item response model-based calibrations for these data. As a result of these analyses, we will provide traditional item indices, as well as IRT-based item and step difficulties, item fit indices, instrument reliability indices, and some validity evidence for the instruments to be designed.

Finally, BEAR will recommend any possible revisions to the construct maps, items, and scoring procedures used in the pilot tests, and again in the field test, based on all of the information collected and analyses performed.