A METHOD FOR SEVERELY CONSTRAINED ITEM SELECTION IN ADAPTIVE TESTING

Previous attempts at incorporating expert test construction practices into computerized adaptive testing paradigms are described. A new meth od is presented for incorporating a large number of constraints on ada ptive item selection. The methodology emulates the test construction p ractices of expert test specialists, which is a necessity if computeri zed adaptive testing is to compete with conventional tests. Two exampl es-one for a verbal measure and the other for a quantitative measure-a re provided of the successful use of the proposed method in designing adaptive tests. Index terms: adaptive test design, computerized adapti ve testing, constrained adaptive testing, expert systems, test assembl y algorithms.