This study investigated test-taking engagement on the Spring 2019 administration of a large-scale state summative assessment. Through the identification of rapid-guessing behavior -- which is a validated indicator of disengagement -- the percentage of Grade 8 test events with meaningful amounts of rapid guessing was 5.5% in mathematics, 6.7% in…

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound effect on K-12 education. Most schools transitioned to remote instruction, and some used remote testing to assess student learning. Remote testing, however, is less controlled than in-school testing, leading to concerns regarding test-taking engagement. This study compared the disengagement of…

When we administer educational achievement tests, we want to be confident that the resulting scores validly indicate what the test takers know and can do. However, if the test is perceived as low stakes by the test taker, disengaged test taking sometimes occurs, which poses a serious threat to score validity. When computer-based tests are used,…

The growing presence of computer-based testing has brought with it the capability to routinely capture the time that test takers spend on individual test items. This, in turn, has led to an increased interest in potential applications of response time in measuring intellectual ability and achievement. Goldhammer (this issue) provides a very useful…

Development of adaptive tests used in K-12 settings requires the creation of stable measurement scales to measure the growth of individual students from one grade to the next, and to measure change in groups from one year to the next. Accountability systems like No Child Left Behind require stable measurement scales so that accountability has…

Two operational item pools were used to investigate the performance of stratum computerized adaptive tests (CATs) when items were assigned to strata based on empirical estimates of item difficulty or human judgments of item difficulty. Items from the first data set consisted of 54 5-option multiple choice items from a form of the ACT mathematics…

There are a variety of situations in which low-stakes achievement tests--which are defined as those having few or no consequences for examinee performance--are used in applied measurement. A problem inherent in such testing is that we often cannot assume that all examinees give their best effort to their test, which suggests that the test scores…

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 study assessed whether providing examinees with a choice between computerized adaptive testing (CAT) and self-adaptive testing (SAT) affects test performance in comparison with being assigned a CAT or SAT, and evaluated variables influencing examinee choice of either test form. The relative influences of test type and test choice on examinee…

One question regarding the utility of adaptive testing is the effect of individualized item arrangements on examinee test scores. The purpose of this study was to analyze the item difficulty choices by examinees as a function of previous item performance. The examination was a 25-item test of basic algebra skills given to 36 students in an…

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)