A decision of whether to move from paper-and-pencil to computer-based tests is based largely on a careful weighing of the potential benefits of a change against its costs, disadvantages, and challenges. This paper briefly discusses the trade-offs involved in making such a transition, and then focuses on a relatively unexplored benefit of…

The goal in personalized assessment is to best fit the needs of each individual test taker, given the assessment purposes. Design-in-Real-Time (DIRTy) assessment reflects the progressive evolution in testing from a single test, to an adaptive test, to an adaptive assessment "system." In this article, we lay the foundation for DIRTy…

Lexical competence is considered to be an essential step in the development and consolidation of a student's linguistic ability, and thus the reliable assessment of such competence turns out to be a fundamental aspect in this process. The design and construction of vocabulary tests has become an area of special interest, as it may provide teachers…

This report contains a review of procedures for computerized assembly of linear, sequential, and adaptive tests. The common approach to these test assembly problems is to view them as instances of constrained combinatorial optimization. For each testing format, several potentially useful objective functions and types of constraints are discussed.…

A multiple-form structure (MFS) is an ordered collection or network of testlets (i.e., sets of items). An examinee's progression through the network of testlets is dictated by the correctness of an examinee's answers, thereby adapting the test to his or her trait level. The collection of paths through the network yields the set of all possible…

With the advent of computer-based testing (CBT) and the need to increase the number of items available in computer adaptive test pools, the idea of item variants was conceived. An item variant can be defined as an item with content based on an existing item to a greater or lesser degree. Item variants were first proposed as a way to enhance test…

A constrained computerized adaptive testing (CAT) algorithm is presented that automatically equates the number-correct scores on adaptive tests. The algorithm can be used to equate number-correct scores across different administrations of the same adaptive test as well as to an external reference test. The constraints are derived from a set of…

Computerized adaptive testing allows us to create a unique personalized test that matches the ability and knowledge of the test taker. (Author)

In the summer of 1996, the U.S. Armed Services will implement the computerized adaptive testing version of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (CAT-ASVAB). When conversion is completed at the 65 targeted military entrance processing stations, about half the applicants will take this test version. This paper describes the efforts that…

This paper describes a computer program in Microsoft BASIC which selects and administers test items from a small item bank. The level of the difficulty of the item selected depends on the test taker's previous response. This adaptive system is based on the Rasch model. The Rasch model uses a unit of measurement based on the logarithm of the…

This report and compilation of papers summarizes information collected by an Assessment Development and Use Project, initiated by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) to assist test development efforts by state and local agencies. Specific item banking applications are reported in two case studies, selected because they represent…