AVANTE Announces Solution for Fixing the College Board SAT Scoring Errors.PRINCETON, N.J. -- The recent scoring errors of SAT by the tabulation tab·u·late tr.v. tab·u·lat·ed, tab·u·lat·ing, tab·u·lates 1. To arrange in tabular form; condense and list. 2. To cut or form with a plane surface. adj. Having a plane surface. company engaged by the College Board highlighted the long needed technology upgrading. The errors were attributed to the moisture induced paper expansion and inability to resolve lightly marked "bubble marks". The inability to resolve lightly marked "bubble marks" and errors due to paper expansion or shrinkage Shrinkage The amount by which inventory on hand is shorter than the amount of inventory recorded. Notes: The missing inventory could be due to theft, damage, or book keeping errors. are known problems in the industry for at least 30 years ever since automatic tabulation of standardized tests A standardized test is a test administered and scored in a standard manner. The tests are designed in such a way that the "questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent" [1] was used. Combining with the inherent paper alignment errors, as much as 1.5% of tests(1) were tallied wrong in this publicized pub·li·cize tr.v. pub·li·cized, pub·li·ciz·ing, pub·li·ciz·es To give publicity to. Adj. 1. publicized - made known; especially made widely known publicised debacle. For the individual student taking the test, the highest error rate is 450 points(1) or 19% for a 2400 points test or 25% for a 1600 points test. Lesser known to the public, the same error rates also appeared in tabulation of votes in US elections when paper ballots are used. The Federal Voting System Noun 1. voting system - a legal system for making democratic choices electoral system legal system - a system for interpreting and enforcing the laws Standards of 2002 now specifically mandate voting systems to have less than 1 error in 500,000 marks when the paper ballot is marked correctly (i.e. properly filled "bubble marks"). Systems based on the same discrete sensor/OMR technology seem to have problem meeting this mandate. AVANTE International Technology Inc. is proud to announce a recently EAC EAC an abbreviation used in studies of complement, in which E represents erythrocyte, A antibody, and C complement. certified See certification. system for tallying ballots using pixel count and document imaging technology. AVANTE Optical VOTE-TRAKKER(TM) is the first to pass and exceed this stringent federal testing with zero error in tabulation in 1,500,000 marks. The same technology and system also works for scoring tests and has been used for tabulation of surveys and questionnaires besides tallying ballots. The discrete sensor A device that measures or detects a real-world condition, such as motion, heat or light and converts the condition into an analog or digital representation. An optical sensor detects the intensity or brightness of light, or the intensity of red, green and blue for color systems. OMR (Optical Mark Reader) A scanner that reads marks on specific areas of the page. See mark sensing. OMR - Optical Mark Reader technology relies on the papers passing through the scanner "exactly" straight so the marking positions with respect to the width line up "correctly" and timing correctly for reading based on the length of the papers every time. With the use of the advanced technology of document imaging, AVANTE uses fiducial marks See: collimating mark. to scale for any orientation and paper expansion/shrinkage variations. The additional use of quantitative counting of pixels See pixel. in each "bubble mark" also provides automatic self-checking for possible light markings and other human intent discrepancy DISCREPANCY. A difference between one thing and another, between one writing and another; a variance. (q.v.) 2. Discrepancies are material and immaterial. and electronically retrieved the specific forms for manual tabulation. The following table is a summary of the differences between the traditional discrete sensor OMR and imaging plus quantitative pixel counting technologies.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DISCRETE SENSOR-OMR AND IMAGING-PIXEL COUNT
TECHNOLOGIES
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DISCRETE SENSOR-OMR IMAGING-PIXEL COUNT
Recognition of filled Yes Yes
"bubble mark"
Recognition of lightly Mostly no Yes
filled "bubble mark" (Need high threshold)
Independence on timing No Yes
tracks
Ability to resolve No Yes
registration (fiducial)
marks
Ability to resolve No Yes
wrinkled and creased
papers
Ability to resolve paper No Yes
shrinkage/expansion
Recognition of "X" marks Mostly no or Yes
marginal.
Resolving barcode (type or Yes Yes
individual form)
Resolving multiple and Yes Yes
different pages
Resolving random No Yes
orientation of pages
"Separating" written No Yes
answers from "bubbles"
Automatic self-check for No Yes
accuracy
Ability to retrieve No Yes
individual test for
recount
Speed (Per Scanner) Up to 10,000 Up to 6,000 pages/hr-
pages/hr-scanner scanner
Accuracy greater than 1/1,000 less than 1/1,500,000
(2006 SAT case: (Federal ITA tested)
greater than 1/100)
(1) "SAT Problems Even Larger Than Reported", Karen W. Arenson, NY
Times, March 23, 2006
ABOUT AVANTE AVANTE is located in Princeton, NJ (www.avantetech.com) and looking to partner and license this patented optical tabulation technology (AVANTE Patented US 6,892,944 and allowed pending patent 10/410,824) to help to eliminate scoring errors in standardized tests, surveys and questionnaires along with its original solution for accurately tabulated ballots for elections. |
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