As late as 1966, Orville Palmer wrote: "Sixty years of [College]
Board English testing have amply proved that essay tests are neither
reliable nor valid, and that, whatever their faults, objective tests do
constitute a reliable and valid method of ascertaining student composzional
ability. Such a conclusion was very painfully and reluctantly arrived at"
(p. 286). And, perhaps, prematurely arrived at. In a landmark study of
the same year, Godshalk, Swineford, and Coffman (1966) showed that, under
special circumstances, scores on brief essays could be reliable and also
valid in making a unique contribution to the prediction of performance
on a stable criterion measure of writing ability.