A new era for PAT: Mathematics —Online, interactive, and adaptive

PAT: Mathematics tests have been around since 1974, and are used in thousands of New Zealand classrooms. In this article we outline the history of the tests, then describe some recent and ongoing work that marks a new era in the evolution of the assessments. Until now, PAT Maths tests were composed solely of multiple-choice items, and could only be administered, marked and analysed manually. The new era has already made tests available online, opening up a new world of possibilities for test items. Very soon we will introduce increasing numbers of interactive items and computer adaptive test administration algorithms.