Over the past twenty years in performance testing a specific item type with distinguishing characteristics has arisen time and time again. It's been invented independently by dozens of test development teams. And yet this item type is not recognized in the research literature. This article is an invitation to investigate the item type, evaluate…

This paper describes a computer program in Microsoft BASIC which selects and administers test items from a small item bank. The level of the difficulty of the item selected depends on the test taker's previous response. This adaptive system is based on the Rasch model. The Rasch model uses a unit of measurement based on the logarithm of the…

Student achievement test scores were compared and equated, using three different testing methods: paper-administered, computer-administered, and computerized adaptive testing. The tests were developed from third and sixth grade mathematics item banks of the California Assessment Program. The paper and the computer-administered tests were identical…

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…