Equating Exams as a Prerequisite for Maintaining Standards: Experience with Dutch centralised secondary examinations

National examinations in The Netherlands play an important role both as school-leaving exams and in providing access to tertiary education. For most subjects the exams consist of two parts: a part internal to the school which is constructed, set and marked by the individual schoolteacher; and a central part which is constructed by Cito, the Dutch National Institute for Educational Measurement, but administered and marked by the schools. For many years, and until the 1990s, the procedures for the construction of the exams and for setting cut-off scores remained largely unchanged. In the 1990s, in response to concerns over standards, studies were conducted which demonstrated the necessity and feasibility of using equating procedures. Acting upon the outcomes, the State Secretary for Education and Science provided funds for introducing and maintaining equating as a standard procedure in central exams. From 1994 onwards, more and more exams have involved formal equating procedures.