12.

Discuss the importance of bank

item at school level
• Helps schools implement best practices, leading to increased reliability and validity.
• decreases test development costs compared to manual processes and makes it much easier
to publish new test forms.
• An item bank, a robust repository of test questions and the components that make up those
questions, is critical to keeping exam content secure and fresh.
• Professional test developers can create tests that accurately measure the knowledge, skills
and abilities necessary for competence when there is a bank of well-written items.
• Provides test developers and subject matter experts (SMEs) a set of tools to facilitate the
writing, review, editing and selection of test questions.
• Provides the automation, standardization, and scalability essential to developing and
maintaining effective tests.
• In most applications of testing and assessment, the items are of multiple choice format, but
any format can be used. Items are pulled from the bank and assigned to test forms for
publication either as a paper-and-pencil test or some form of e-assessment.
• Item banking is the foundation for the development of valid, reliable content and defensible
test forms.
• Items are reusable objects; items can be used more than once.
• Performance could be tracked not only within a test form, but across test forms as well.
24. Explain validity of an assessment
• Validity refers to the accuracy of an assessment --
whether or not it measures what it is supposed to
measure.
• E.g.
– the test content/ items must match the course
content or unit being taught
– If an assessment intends to measure achievement
and ability in a particular subject area but then
measures concepts that are completely unrelated, the
assessment is not valid.
• There are three ways in which validity can be
measured. In order to have confidence that a
test is valid (and therefore the inferences we
make based on the test scores are valid), all
three kinds of validity evidence should be
considered.
Type of Validity Definition
Content The extent to which the
content of the test
matches the instructional
objectives.
Criterion The extent to which scores
on the test are in
agreement with
(concurrent validity) or
predict (predictive validity)
an external criterion.
Construct The extent to which an
assessment corresponds
to other variables, as
predicted by some
rationale or theory.
Example/ Non-Example
A semester or quarter
exam that only includes
content covered during
the last six weeks is not a
valid measure of the
course's overall objectives
-- it has very low content
validity.
If the end-of-year math
tests in 4th grade correlate
highly with the statewide
math tests, they would
have high concurrent
validity
If you can correctly
hypothesize that ESOL
students will perform
differently on a reading
test than English-speaking
students (because of
theory), the assessment
may have construct
validity.