Administrative problems such as computer malfunction and power outage occasionally lead to missing item scores and hence to incomplete data on mastery tests such as the AP and U.S. Medical Licensing examinations. Investigators are often interested in estimating the probabilities of passing of the examinees with incomplete data on mastery tests.…

In standardized educational testing, test items are reused in multiple test administrations. To ensure the validity of test scores, the psychometric properties of items should remain unchanged over time. In this article, we consider the sequential monitoring of test items, in particular, the detection of abrupt changes to their psychometric…

One of the methods of controlling test security in adaptive testing is imposing random item-ineligibility constraints on the selection of the items with probabilities automatically updated to maintain a predetermined upper bound on the exposure rates. Three major improvements of the method are presented. First, a few modifications to improve the…

Educational assessments often require uniform test forms, for which each test form has equivalent measurement accuracy but with a different set of items. For uniform test assembly, an important issue is the increase of the number of assembled uniform tests. Although many automatic uniform test assembly methods exist, the maximum clique algorithm…

As perfectly summarised by Ida Lawrence, "Testing is growing by leaps and bounds across the world. There is a realization that a nation's well-being depends crucially on the educational achievement of its population. Valid tests are an essential tool to evaluate a nation's educational standing and to implement efficacious educational reforms.…

So far, modeling approaches for not-reached items have considered one single underlying process. However, missing values at the end of a test can occur for a variety of reasons. On the one hand, examinees may not reach the end of a test due to time limits and lack of working speed. On the other hand, examinees may not attempt all items and quit…

Test score users often demand the reporting of subscores due to their potential diagnostic, remedial, and instructional benefits. Therefore, there is substantial pressure on testing programs to report subscores. However, professional standards require that subscores have to satisfy minimum quality standards before they can be reported. In this…

It is demonstrated that the popular three-parameter logistic model can lead to markedly inaccurate individual ability level estimates for mixture populations. A theoretically and empirically important setting is initially considered where (a) in one of two subpopulations (latent classes) the two-parameter logistic model holds for each item in a…

This technical report provides detailed information regarding the technical, statistical, and measurement attributes of the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP) for the Grades 3-8 English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics 2018 Operational Tests. This report includes information about test content and test development, item (i.e., individual…

This article aims to provide a theoretical framework for computerized adaptive tests (CAT) and item response theory models for polytomous items. Besides that, it aims to introduce the simulation and live CAT software to the related researchers. Computerized adaptive test algorithm, assumptions of item response theory models, nominal response…

David Thissen, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Quantitative Program at the University of North Carolina, has consulted and served on technical advisory committees for assessment programs that use item response theory (IRT) over the past couple decades. He has come to the conclusion that there are usually two purposes…

This technical report provides detailed information regarding the technical, statistical, and measurement attributes of the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP) for the Grades 3-8 English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics 2017 Operational Tests. This report includes information about test content and test development, item (i.e., individual…

About 45 R packages to analyze data using item response theory (IRT) have been developed over the last decade. This article introduces these 45 R packages with their descriptions and features. It also describes possible advanced IRT models using R packages, as well as dichotomous and polytomous IRT models, and R packages that contain applications…

International large-scale assessments (ILSAs) transitioned from paper-based assessments to computer-based assessments (CBAs) facilitating the use of new item types and more effective data collection tools. This allows implementation of more complex test designs and to collect process and response time (RT) data. These new data types can be used to…

In this digital ITEMS module, Dr. Jue Wang and Dr. George Engelhard Jr. describe the Rasch measurement framework for the construction and evaluation of new measures and scales. From a theoretical perspective, they discuss the historical and philosophical perspectives on measurement with a focus on Rasch's concept of specific objectivity and…