The knowledge about affix plays a vital role in the development of word knowledge and vocabulary acquisition. A test for diagnostic information on the level of affix knowledge would be useful in order to inform the test users of what learners have gained or lacked in this integral component of vocabulary knowledge. This paper reports the…

Twenty-first-century healthcare is a complex and demanding arena. Today's hospital environment is more complex than in previous years while patients move through the system at a much faster pace. Newly graduated nurses are challenged in their first year with the healthcare needs of complex patients. Nurse educators and nurse leaders differ in…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a calculus system that was designed using an adaptive dynamic assessment (DA) framework on performance in the "finding an area using an integral". In this study, adaptive testing and dynamic assessment were combined to provide different test items depending on students'…

This study uses mixed integer quadratic programming (MIQP) to construct multiple highly equivalent item pools simultaneously, and compares the results from mixed integer programming (MIP). Three different MIP/MIQP models were implemented and evaluated using real CAT item pool data with 23 different content areas and a goal of equal information…

When power tests include a time limit, it is important to assess the possibility of speededness for examinees. Past research on differential speededness has examined gender and ethnic subgroups in the United States on paper and pencil tests. When considering the needs of a global audience, research regarding different native language speakers is…

Establishing the mathematical content knowledge of pre-service teachers is a requirement in New Zealand. However, this knowledge is not clearly defined and is a challenge for initial teacher education providers to assess. We develop the concept of foundation content knowledge and suggest how it can be assessed using two forms of diagnostic…

In measurement research, data simulations are a commonly used analytical technique. While simulation designs have many benefits, it is unclear if these artificially generated datasets are able to accurately capture real examinee item response behaviors. This potential lack of comparability may have important implications for administration of…

The psychometric properties of measures of self-efficacy for the six themes of Holland's theory were examined using item response theory. Item and scale quality were compared across levels of the trait continuum; all the scales were highly reliable but differentiated better at some levels of the continuum than others. Applications for adaptive…

When power tests include a time limit, it is important to assess the possibility of "speededness" for examinees. Research on differential speededness in the past has included looking at gender and ethnic subgroups in the United States on paper and pencil tests. The needs of a global audience necessitated, and the availability of computer…

Disability laws such as the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 mandate equal access to academic programs, activities, and services for students with disabilities. Therefore, disability laws require that institutions of higher education offer students with learning disabilities (LD)…

In a randomized experiment (n = 515), a computerized and a computerized adaptive test (CAT) are compared. The item pool consists of 24 polytomous motivation items. Although items are carefully selected, calibration data show that Samejima's graded response model did not fit the data optimally. A simulation study is done to assess possible…

Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is described and compared with conventional tests, and its advantages summarized. Some item response theory concepts used in CAT are summarized and illustrated. The author describes the potential usefulness of CAT in counseling and education and reviews some current issues in the implementation of CAT.

Test-item writing efforts typically results in item pools with an undesirable correlational structure between the content attributes of the items and their statistical information. If such pools are used in computerized adaptive testing (CAT), the algorithm may be forced to select items with less than optimal information, that violate the content…