The Computer Adaptive Test for Reading Chinese (CATRC) was developed by Professor Tao-Chung (Ted) Yao of the University of Hawaii in 1990-1993 with a grant from the United States Department of Education. The first test items were written by Ted Yao and Cynthia Ning of the University of Hawaii and Richard Chi of the University of Utah. Later test items were written by Sylvia Sun, Xinhua Wu and Lanhsin Chang of the University of Hawaii.
The original computer program was written by Ted Yao using HyperCard with the assistance of Kim Smith of Brigham Young University and David Herren of Middlebury College.
Middlebury College has developed a number of new versions of this exam. One version was developed with Adobe Director by Alex Chapin and released as a Shockwave web application. More recently, a version was developed by Adam Franco using an adaptive quiz module for Moodle.
The Curricular Collections version of the CATRC was developed at Middlebury College and at UNC Charlotte under the direction of Alex Chapin. This version was used for the Middlebury College 2013 summer session and a number of other institutions.