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Item Response Theory and Artificial Intelligence: Leading Experts at the International IACAT Conference June 10-13 Discuss How Adaptive Assessments Improve Testing
[May 15, 2019]

Item Response Theory and Artificial Intelligence: Leading Experts at the International IACAT Conference June 10-13 Discuss How Adaptive Assessments Improve Testing


The International Association for Computerized Adaptive Testing (IACAT) 2019 Conference June 10-13 may likely foster the most provocative discussions this year about testing in education when researchers, practitioners, psychometricians, test developers, and school leaders come together to discuss adaptive assessments. And while Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) has been around for over 40 years, it is not the norm for the nation's most common tests, summative assessments in education. Click to Tweet.

Dr. David Weiss, who is generally regarded as the grandfather of Computerized Adaptive Testing, is the featured keynote speaker. In his typically outspoken manner, Dr. Weiss is expected to pull no punches in his speech about the current testing landscape and how testing has driven education to a commodity exchange of inputs and outputs. The current assessment climate, he says, is missing the opportunity to learn about individual aptitudes, strengths, and weaknesses and how to generate test results that informs instruction in a meaningful way.

Additional conference sessions include assessing nonverbal IQ in autistic students, identifying enemy question items that sabotage test validity, multistage testing, artificial intelligence in assessment, on-the-fly machine learning, item response theory, shadow-test approach in RSCAT, rapid guessing behavior, vertical scaling, and more. In addition, applications of CAT are discussed in fields as diverse as ophthalmology, language, and employment.



Assessment Systems Corporation (ASC (News - Alert)), a Minnesota-based international leader in adaptive and AI-enabled assessment, is the host of IACAT 2019, which will be held on the University of Minnesota campus. Attendees and speakers from around the United States and the world will attend. Registration information can be found at http://bit.ly/IACAT2019.

About Computerized Adaptive Testing


Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) was one of the first uses of AI in education, replacing a human examiner with a computer, based on complex machine learning algorithms known as item response theory (IRT) instead of fixed rules. Adaptive testing is far more efficient than regular testing, offering a 50-90 percent reduction in testing time with no loss of accuracy. It also has other documented advantages such as making the test more secure and increasing engagement or motivation for the test-takers. Learn more at IACAT.org

About Assessment Systems

Assessment Systems has been a leader in the assessment industry since 1979, providing both world-class software for test development, secure delivery, and psychometric analytics, as well as extensive consulting services for testing organizations. ASC co-founder, Dr. David Weiss, is considered the father of computerized adaptive testing (CAT), and ASC was the first company to offer item banking and testing software to the public, in the early 1980s. Organizations such as the American Board of Optometry, the American Board of Pathology, and Michigan State University, as well as the Ministries of Education in countries as diverse as Iceland, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Botswana rely on Assessment Systems to develop accurate measurements across a variety of subjects. Follow us on LinkedIn or @Assess_Systems.


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