Computers and Their Impact on State Assessments

Recent History and Predictions for the Future

The Race To The Top program strongly advocates the use of computer technology in assessments. It dramatically promotes computerbased testing, linear or adaptive, in K12 state assessment programs. Moreover, assessment requirements driven by this federal initiative exponentially increase the complexity in assessment design and test development. This book provides readers with a review of the history and basics of computerbased tests. It also offers a macro perspective for designing such assessment systems in the K12 setting as well as a micro perspective on new challenges such as innovative items, scoring of such items, cognitive diagnosis, and vertical scaling for growth modeling and value added approaches to assessment. The editors’ goal is to provide readers with necessary information to create a smarter computerbased testing system by following the advice and experience of experts from education as well as other industries. This book is based on a conference (http://marces.org/workshop.htm) held by the Maryland Assessment Research Center for Education Success. It presents multiple perspectives including test vendors and state departments of education, in designing and implementing a computerbased test in the K12 setting. The design and implementation of such a system requires deliberate planning and thorough considerations. The advice and experiences presented in this book serve as a guide to practitioners and as a good source of information for quality control. The technical issues discussed in this book are relatively new and unique to K12 largescale computerbased testing programs, especially due to the recent federal policy. Several chapters provide possible solutions to psychometricians dealing with the technical challenges related to innovative items, cognitive diagnosis, and growth modeling in computerbased linear or adaptive tests in the K12 setting.