The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of linking test scores by using test takers' background data to form pseudo-equivalent groups (PEG) of test takers. Using 4 operational test forms that each included 100 items and were taken by more than 30,000 test takers, we created 2 half-length research forms that had either 20…

New Meridian Corporation has developed the "Quality Testing Standards and Criteria for Comparability Claims" (QTS) to provide guidance to states that are interested in including New Meridian content and would like to either keep reporting scores on the New Meridian Scale or use the New Meridian performance levels; that is, the state…

An IRT-based sequential procedure is developed to monitor items for enhancing test security. The procedure uses a series of statistical hypothesis tests to examine whether the statistical characteristics of each item under inspection have changed significantly during CAT administration. This procedure is compared with a previously developed…

This study compares the progressive-restricted standard error (PR-SE) exposure control procedure to three commonly used procedures in computerized adaptive testing, the randomesque, Sympson-Hetter (SH), and no exposure control methods. The performance of these four procedures is evaluated using the three-parameter logistic model under the…

Independent schools are, for the most part, exempt from mandatory participation in standardized tests designed for state and federal comparisons, nor are they required to take part in comparative international assessments. The anxiety in the broader culture, however, is driving a growing interest among independent school parents (and prospective…

The goal of the current study was to introduce a new stopping rule for computerized adaptive testing (CAT). The predicted standard error reduction (PSER) stopping rule uses the predictive posterior variance to determine the reduction in standard error that would result from the administration of additional items. The performance of the PSER was…

It is sometimes desirable to obtain an estimated total-test score for an individual who was administered only a subset of the items in a total test. The present study compared six methods, two of which utilize the content structure of items, to estimate total-test scores using 450 students in grades 3-5 and 60 items of the ll0-item Stanford Mental…

A conventional test and two forms of a stradaptive test were administered to thousands of simulated subjects by minicomputer. Characteristics of the three tests using several scoring techniques were investigated while varying the discriminating power of the items, the lengths of the tests, and the availability of prior information about the…

A 40-item flexilevel test and a 40-item conventional test were compared using data obtained through (1) computer-administration of the two tests to three groups of college students, and (2) monte carlo simulation of test response patterns. Results indicated the flexilevel score distribution better reflected the underlying normal distribution of…