By tailoring test forms to the test-taker's proficiency, Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) enables substantial increases in testing efficiency over fixed forms testing. When used for formative assessment, the alignment of task difficulty with proficiency increases the chance that teachers can derive useful feedback from assessment data. The application of CAT to formative assessment in the classroom, however, is hindered by the large number of different items used for the whole class; the required familiarization with a large number of test items puts a significant burden on teachers. An improved CAT procedure for group-based testing is presented, which uses simultaneous automated test assembly to impose a limit on the number of items used per group. The proposed linear model for simultaneous adaptive item selection allows for full adaptivity and the accommodation of constraints on test content. The effectiveness of the group-based CAT is demonstrated with real-world items in a simulated adaptive test of 3,000 groups of test-takers, under different assumptions on group composition. Results show that the group-based CAT maintained the efficiency of CAT, while a reduction in the number of used items by one half to two-thirds was achieved, depending on the within-group variance of proficiencies.

中文翻译：

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用于基于组的测试的同时约束自适应项目选择

通过根据应试者的熟练程度定制测试表格，计算机自适应测试 (CAT) 与固定表格测试相比，可以显着提高测试效率。当用于形成性评估时，任务难度与熟练程度的一致性增加了教师从评估数据中获得有用反馈的机会。然而，CAT 在课堂形成性评估中的应用受到了全班使用的大量不同项目的阻碍；需要熟悉大量考试项目，这给教师带来了沉重的负担。提出了一种用于基于组的测试的改进 CAT 程序，它使用同步自动化测试组件来限制每组使用的项目数量。所提出的用于同时自适应项目选择的线性模型允许完全自适应并适应测试内容的约束。在对组构成的不同假设下，在对 3,000 组测试者进行的模拟自适应测试中，使用真实世界的项目证明了基于组的 CAT 的有效性。结果表明，基于组的 CAT 保持了 CAT 的效率，同时根据熟练程度的组内差异，使用项目的数量减少了二分之一到三分之二。