ThinkLink assessments match the state standards and high stakes tests before offering the Predictive Assessment Series in a specific state.

Educators in a "ThinkLink State" can be certain that Predictive Assessment benchmark tests and mini-assessment items are carefully aligned by grade and subject matter experts. They are reviewed multiple times to assure a true match to each state with careful examination of:

• Released item samples
• Published "State Specific" testing benchmark definitions
• State-defined content standards and limits, and
• State publication of proficiencies and previous year's high stakes' scores.

This assures content validity and statistically reliable tests and items with the appropriate range of difficulty levels and item formats.

Matching procedures ensure that ThinkLink benchmark tests meet the requirements for scientifically based research defined by NCLB. In other words, in a math test, the overall average is useful, but the average within a skill, such as number sense or geometry is most useful to teachers. Similarly in each subject, data must be available on each skill to guide teachers and students on where improvement can occur. With state-published averages, a testing company must show that its assessments match state difficulty levels by skill.

Thus, predictive assessments can only have content validity when test items and skill results are state specific. Anybody can claim content validity. Only by viewing the proposed tests and reports that compare actual state results to test company results is it possible to determine if an assessment demonstrates content validity.