The purpose of this study is to describe and evaluate a multilingual automated essay scoring (AES) system for grading essays in three languages. Two different sentence embedding models were evaluated within the AES system, multilingual BERT (mBERT) and language-agnostic BERT sentence embedding (LaBSE). German, Italian, and Czech essays were…

Two new methods have been proposed to determine unexpected sum scores on sub-tests (testlets) both for paper-and-pencil tests and computer adaptive tests. A method based on a conservative bound using the hypergeometric distribution, denoted p, was compared with a method where the probability for each score combination was calculated using a…

A model integrating latent trait and latent class theories in characterizing individual performance on the basis of qualitative understanding is presented. This HYBRID model is illustrated through experiments with 119 Air Force technicians taking a paper-and-pencil test and 136 Air Force technicians taking a computerized test. (SLD)

Computer simulations were run to measure the relationship between testlet validity and factors of item pool size and testlet length for both adaptive and linearly constructed testlets. Making a testlet adaptive yields only modest increases in aggregate validity because of the peakedness of the typical proficiency distribution. (Author/SLD)

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to explore relationships among existing item types and three new computer-administered item types for the analytical scale of the Graduate Record Examination General Test. Results with 349 students indicate constructs the item types are measuring. (SLD)

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of four item selection rules--(1) Fisher information (F), (2) Fisher information with a posterior distribution (FP), (3) Kullback-Leibler information with a posterior distribution (KP), and (4) completely randomized item selection (RN)--with respect to the precision of trait estimation and the…

Examinees in a regular administration of the quantitative portion of the Graduate Record Examination responded to particular items in a machine-scannable multiple-choice format. Volunteers (n=364) used a computer to answer open-ended counterparts of these items. Scores for both formats demonstrated similar correlational patterns. (SLD)

Performance of 156 undergraduate and 48 graduate students on a self-adapted test (SFAT)--students choose the difficulty level of their test items--was compared with performance on a computer-adapted test (CAT). Those taking the SFAT obtained higher ability scores and reported lower posttest state anxiety than did CAT takers. (SLD)