To ensure that student academic growth in a subject area is accurately captured, it is imperative that the underlying scale remains stable over time. As item parameter stability constitutes one of the factors that affects scale stability, NWEA® periodically conducts studies to check for the stability of the item parameter estimates for MAP®…

Assessing students' emerging literacy skills is crucial for identifying areas where a child may be falling behind and can lead directly to an increased chance of reading success. The Waterford Assessment of Core Skills (WACS), a computerized adaptive test of early literacy for students in prekindergarten through 2nd grade, addresses this need.…

The concept of testing for partial knowledge is considered with the concept of tailored testing. Following the special usage of latent trait theory, the word valdity is used to mean the correlation of a test with the construct the test measures. The concept of a method factor in the test is also considered as a part of the validity. The possible…

The advantages of computerized adaptive testing are discussed, and an example illustrates its use in sixth grade mathematics. These tests are administered at a computer terminal, and the test items to be administered are selected according to the difficulty level appropriate to the individual's ability. Tailoring increases the psychometric…

A computerized adaptive testing model was applied to a hierarchically arranged series of subtests within the instructional context of a technical education system. The model was a modification of Lord's flexilevel paradigm; however, it did not allow for individualized entry. Two achievement tests, each divided into five hierarchically related…

A new testing strategy that provides protection against the problem of having examinees in adaptive testing choose difficulty levels that are not matched to their proficiency levels was introduced and evaluated. The method, termed restricted self-adapted testing (RSAT), still provides examinees with a degree of control over the difficulty levels…

This paper argues that no single measurement strategy serves all purposes and that applying methods and techniques which allow a variety of data elements to be retrieved and juxtaposed may be an investment in the future. Item response theory, Rasch model, and latent trait theory are all approaches to a single conceptual topic. An abbreviated look…