py-irt: A Scalable Item Response Theory Library for Python

Abstract

py-irt is a Python library for fitting Bayesian item response theory (IRT) models. At present, there is no Python package for fitting large-scale IRT models. py-irt estimates latent traits of subjects and items, making it appropriate for use in IRT tasks as well as in ideal point models. py-irt is built on top of the Pyro and PyTorch frameworks and uses GPU-accelerated training to scale to large data sets. It is the first Python package for large-scale IRT model fitting. py-irt is easy to use for practitioners and also allows for researchers to build and fit custom IRT models. py-irt is available as open-source software and can be installed from GitHub or the Python Package Index. History: Accepted by Ted Ralphs, Area Editor for software tools. Supplemental Material: The software that supports the findings of this study is available within the paper and its Supplementary Information [ https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/suppl/10.1287/ijoc.2022.1250 ] or is available from the IJOC GitHub software repository ( https://github.com/INFORMSJoC ) at [ http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6818509 ].