How are the written and spoken portions of STAMP graded?
Although computers lack the capacity to grade the limitless variations that can be produced by students on the written and spoken portions of the STAMP test, they do play a key role in assuring consistent accuracy on the part of our graders. Each STAMP grader undergoes a training regime originally designed by CASLS. After receiving formal training, potential graders, who are native speakers or language instructors, are asked to grade an extensive battery of sample items to establish that their grading standards are aligned with test requirements. Only after this process is successfully completed, are graders allowed to score actual student-generated writing samples. The computer system then continuously monitors our test graders by presenting test items that are internally generated to assess consistency on the part of the grader. Graders who fail to appropriately score the internally generated items are required to retrain before continuing to grade student writing and speaking sample
