14. A computer system for designing an assessment, the computer system comprising: a processing system; a computer-readable storage medium containing one or more programming instructions tangibly embodied thereon for causing the processing system to perform a method of designing an assessment, the method comprising: receiving subject matter information related to one or more subject matters of an assessment; receiving requirements information related to one or more subject matters of an assessment; storing the subject matter information and the requirements information in a database; storing one or more trifles in the database, wherein each trifle is based on one or more of the subject matter information and the requirements information; wherein a trifle provides reference to a source of the subject matter information or the requirement information on which the trifle is based for subsequent access; storing a student model in the database, wherein the student model is based on at least one trifle, and specifying statistical relationships between multiple variables in the student model; storing one or more task and evidence models in the database, wherein each model is based on at least one trifle; wherein each task model comprises: an identification of an audience for the task model; a format for communicating a task to a student for the task model; a task feature description for the task model; an outcome feature description for the task model; and a task family feature description; generating one or more tasks, wherein each task is based on one or more of the task models; and generating and outputting an assessment, wherein each assessment comprises one or more tasks; wherein a number of tasks of a first kind to be included in the assessment for a particular student is determined based on a student model associated with the particular student, a task model, and an evidence model.
14. A computer system for designing an assessment, the computer system comprising: a processing system; a computer-readable storage medium containing one or more programming instructions tangibly embodied thereon for causing the processing system to perform a method of designing an assessment, the method comprising: receiving subject matter information related to one or more subject matters of an assessment; receiving requirements information related to one or more subject matters of an assessment; storing the subject matter information and the requirements information in a database; storing one or more trifles in the database, wherein each trifle is based on one or more of the subject matter information and the requirements information; wherein a trifle provides reference to a source of the subject matter information or the requirement information on which the trifle is based for subsequent access; storing a student model in the database, wherein the student model is based on at least one trifle, and specifying statistical relationships between multiple variables in the student model; storing one or more task and evidence models in the database, wherein each model is based on at least one trifle; wherein each task model comprises: an identification of an audience for the task model; a format for communicating a task to a student for the task model; a task feature description for the task model; an outcome feature description for the task model; and a task family feature description; generating one or more tasks, wherein each task is based on one or more of the task models; and generating and outputting an assessment, wherein each assessment comprises one or more tasks; wherein a number of tasks of a first kind to be included in the assessment for a particular student is determined based on a student model associated with the particular student, a task model, and an evidence model. 17. The computer system of claim 14 wherein the computer-readable storage medium further contains one or more programming instructions for performing the following: storing a task description to be presented to an assessment participant; and generating at least one rule for receiving a response to the task description.