Standard setting and validation of a placement test by aligning it to the cefr.

The present study attempts to set standards for a placement test used in the School of Foreign Languages (SFL) at a foundation University in Istanbul, Turkey, where the medium of instruction is English. Furthermore, the study aims to provide evidence for the validity of the test by aligning it to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), which after its initial publication by the Council of Europe (2001) has received enormous interest not only in Europe but also across the globe. Five research questions that required both quantitative and qualitative analyses guided the study with the following purposes: a) to establish empirically set cut-off scores through a standard setting via the Angoff method and to compare these with the old cut-off scores; b) to investigate the panelists' (judges involved in standard setting) judgements in relation to the CEFR; c) to compare the test characteristics from classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT) perspectives and; d) to look into the effectiveness of old-cut off scores in regard to placing students into their proficiency level-appropriate courses. For the purposes of the study, the placement test scores of students (n = 1984) were analyzed in regard to psychometric characteristics with different statistical analyses. In addition to that, 5 panelists (testing specialists working for the SFL) participated in the CEFR linking process which followed the stages of familiarization, specification, standardization training, standard setting and empirical validation, suggested by a reference supplement known as "The Manual" (2009). The video recordings of these sessions provided qualitative data derived through open-coding. The results of the study revealed significant implications for the improvement of the investigated placement test and made suggestions in favor of a change in the scoring method.