In U.S. schools, students must pass statewide competency tests to graduate from high school. In this article, the authors summarize the development and testing of a program implemented to improve the skills of students failing to "make the grade" on these high-stakes tests. District personnel randomly assigned twenty-eight students who…

This paper defines Bayesian network models and examines their applications to IRT-based cognitive diagnostic modeling. These models are especially suited to building inference engines designed to be synchronous with the finer grained student models that arise in skills diagnostic assessment. Aspects of the theory and use of Bayesian network models…

There has been considerable research regarding the extent to which psychometric sound assessments sometimes yield individual score estimates that are inconsistent with the response patterns of the individual. It has been suggested that individual response patterns may differ from expectations for a number of reasons, including subject motivation,…

Currently, many students have had experience with both face-to-face and online classes. We asked such students at 46 different universities in the United States to evaluate the pedagogical characteristics of their most recently completed face-to-face class and their most recently completed online class. The results show that students rate online…

"Classroom Assessment in Action" clarifies the multi-faceted roles of measurement and assessment and their applications in a classroom setting. Comprehensive in scope, Shermis and Di Vesta explain basic measurement concepts and show students how to interpret the results of standardized tests. From these basic concepts, the authors then…

The aim of the 2018 International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA) conference was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There have been advances in both cognitive…

Differential item functioning (DIF) assessment attempts to identify items or item types for which subpopulations of examinees exhibit performance differentials that are not consistent with the performance differentials typically seen for those subpopulations on collections of items that purport to measure a common construct. DIF assessment…

Dichotomous item response theory (IRT) models can be viewed as families of stochastically ordered distributions of responses to test items. This paper explores several properties of such distributions. The focus is on the conditions under which stochastic order in families of conditional distributions is transferred to their inverse distributions,…

This paper investigates the performance of CATSIB (a modified version of the SIBTEST computer program) to assess differential item functioning (DIF) in the context of computerized adaptive testing (CAT). One of the distinguishing features of CATSIB is its theoretically built-in regression correction to control for the Type I error rates when the…

This paper reports a method for assessing the adequacy of existing item banks for computer adaptive testing. The method takes into account content specifications, test length, and stopping rules, and can be used to determine if an existing item bank is adequate to administer a computer adaptive test efficiently across differing levels of examinee…

This study assessed whether redundant stimuli are beneficial in motor performance, and how redundant information is processed, using 11 male and 11 female undergraduate students. A minimum information tracking task was presented to subjects on a computer in seven conditions. Overall, evidence seems to point to enhanced performance when information…

It is unrealistic to suppose that standard item response theory (IRT) models will be appropriate for all new and currently considered computer-based tests. In addition to developing new models, researchers will need to give some attention to the possibility of constructing and analyzing new tests without the aid of strong models. Computerized…

An experiment involving 20 graduate and undergraduate students (7 males and 13 females) at West Virginia University (Morgantown) assessed "fan network structures" of recognition memory. A fan in network memory structure occurs when several facts are connected into a single node (concept). The more links from that concept to various…

Online student assessment features in many distance-learning programs. The prevention of plagiarism has been the subject of much attention, but insufficient attention has been given to other problems of dishonesty in online assessment. We survey the types of problems that can occur and what can be done about them. We believe many educators are…

This paper focuses on computer-based assessment embedded in the process of instruction, with the assessment being used for placement, assignment, instructional feedback, progress assessment, and/or exit testing. This discussion is based on experience in developing and evaluating assessment and instruction materials for college-level remedial…