Improving measurement quality and efficiency with adaptive testing

Approaches to adaptive (tailored) testing based on item response theory are described and research re-sults summarized. Through appropriate combina-tions of item pool design and use of different test termination criteria, adaptive tests can be designed (1) to improve both measurement quality and mea-surement efficiency, resulting in measurements of equal precision at all trait levels; (2) to improve measurement efficiency for test batteries using item pools designed for conventional test administration; and (3) to improve the accuracy and efficiency of testing for classification (e.g., mastery testing). Re-search results show that tests based on item response theory (IRT) can achieve measure-ments of equal precision at all trait levels, given a