SIMULATING THE USE OF DISCLOSED ITEMS IN COMPUTERIZED ADAPTIVE TESTING

Regular use of questions previously made available to the public (i.e. , disclosed items) may provide one way to meet the requirement for lar ge numbers of questions in a continuous testing environment, that is, an environment in which resting is offered at test taker convenience t hroughout the year rather than on a few prespecified rest dates. First it must be shown that such use has effects on test scores small enoug h to be acceptable. In this study simulations ate used to explore the use of disclosed items under a worst-case scenario which assumes that disclosed items are always answered correctly. Some item pool and test designs were identified in which the use of disclosed items produces effects on test scores that may be viewed as negligible.