Controlling Item Exposure Conditional on Ability in Computerized Adaptive Testing

Abstract

The interest in the application of large-scale adaptive testing for secure tests has served to focus attention on issues that arise when theoretical advances are made operational. One such issue is that of ensuring item and pool security in the continuous testing environment made possible by the computerized admin-istration of a test, as opposed to the more periodic testing environment typically used for linear paper-and-pencil tests. This article presents a new method of controlling the exposure rate of items conditional on ability level in this continuous testing environment. The properties of such conditional control on the exposure rates of items, when used in conjunction with a particular adaptive testing algorithm, are explored through studies with simulated data.