Stochastic Approximation Methods for Latent Regression Item Response Models

This article presents an application of a stochastic approximation expectation maximization (EM) algorithm using a Metropolis-Hastings (MH) sampler to estimate the parameters of an item response latent regression model. Latent regression item response models are extensions of item response theory (IRT) to a latent variable model with covariates serving as predictors of the conditional distribution of ability. Applications to estimating latent regression models for National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data from the 2000 Grade 4 mathematics assessment and the Grade 8 reading assessment from 2002 are presented and results of the proposed method are compared to results obtained using current operational procedures.