computer-adaptive testing (CAT). Regarded as an innovation a decade ago, CAT has become a mainstay of large testing firms. The Educational Testing Service regularly uses it
for online tests, and reading achievement tests, including the Computer Based Assessment System for Reading, Measures of Academic Progress, Scholastic Reading Inventory, and STAR Reading, are increasingly available in online CAT formats. Many states, including Florida, Maryland, and Oregon, have invested in online CAT systems for one or more state accountability tests. What CAT offers is an assessment that adapts to the test-taker.
Students who answer questions correctly are given questions of increasing difficulty, while students who respond incorrectly are given questions of decreasing difficulty. Each stu- dent thus completes a large number of items at her or his difficulty level, leading to a more precise estimate of the underlying ability being assessed. Although some observers have raised concerns that early careless errors may lead
to underestimates of student abilities, recent evidence suggests that such underestimation is rare and occurs primarily for students of very high or very low ability.
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The turn to computerized delivery of assess- ments has raised concerns that such assess- ment, adaptive or not, might pose particular difficulties for anxious test-takers or those with less computer experience. Although evidence is limited, comparisons of adults taking the GRE suggest that anxiety is a strong predictor of performance and that computing confi- dence is a weak but significant predictor—but also that neither depends on the format in which a test is delivered.50 Other research with adults suggests that older adults may compre- hend less and read less efficiently using computer screens than using paper, whereas younger adults show no difference.51 Studies with intermediate, middle, and high school
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