Schools use commercial systems specifically for mathematics benchmarking and longitudinal assessment. However these systems are expensive and their results often fail to indicate a clear path for teachers to differentiate instruction based on students’ individual strengths and weaknesses in specific skills. ASSISTments is a web-based Intelligent Tutoring System used by educators to drive real-time, formative assessment in their classrooms. The software is used primarily by mathematics teachers to deliver homework, classwork and exams to their students. We have developed a computer adaptive test called PLACEments as an extension of ASSISTments to allow teachers to perform individual student assessment and by extension school-wide benchmarking. PLACEments uses a form of graph-based knowledge representation by which the exam results identify the specific mathematics skills that each student lacks. The system additionally provides differentiated practice determined by the students’ performance on the adaptive test. In this project, we describe the design and implementation of PLACEments as a skill assessment method and evaluate it in comparison with a fixed-item benchmark.

This case study examined the efficiency and precision of computer classification and adaptive testing to elicit responses from test coordinators on implementing a high-stakes computer-based testing. Test coordinators from five elementary schools located in a Georgia school district participated in the study. The school district administered state-made, high-stakes tests using paper and pencil; locally developed tests via the computer or paper and pencil. A post-hoc simulation program, Comprehensive Simulation of Computerized Adatpive Testing, used 586 student item responses to produce results with a variable termination point and classification termination point. Results from the simulation were analyzed and used in the case study to elicit interview responses from test coordinators. The photographs of computer-labs and test schedule documents were collected and analyzed to validate school test coordinators' responses. Test coordinators responded positively to the efficiency and precision of simulation results. Some test coordinators preferred the use of computer-adaptive tests for diagnostic purposes only. Test coordinators experiences focused on the security, the emotions, and the management of testing. The findings of this study will benefit those interested in implementing a high-stakes, computer-based testing program by recommending a simulation study be conducted and feedback by solicited from test coordinators prior to an operational test administration.