This is the last in my series of articles about writing good items. Previously I talked about the importance of writing items that align to the standard, have an appropriate context, and adhere to the item specifications. For this article, I want to point out that items have a structure that item writers are expected to follow.
An item’s structure is determined by the type of item being written. The structure of each item has either evolved over time and is pretty much universal, or has been agreed upon by the developers of a specific test. The intent of having a structure for each item type is to bring consistency to the test-taking experience. Without such consistency, test takers would have difficulty navigating the items of a test.
For the past 100 years or more, item structure was not something that was given much thought. There were only a few item types to choose from; multiple-choice, short-answer, or constructed-response. Each item type had a well-established structure that evolved over many years of use. However, advancements in the area of technology-enhanced items have led to a significant increase in the number of item types available to writers. The Smarter Balanced consortium, for example, has identified 25 distinct item types or interactions (click here for general guidelines and here for each interaction’s structure).
Here is an annotated picture of a test item. The item was taken from the released item pool for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). This picture shows the various elements of a multiple-choice item and will give you a sense of the structure of the most widely used test item type in educational testing.
This series on writing great items was not intended to replace training on the elements of good item writing. This series was intended to provide an overview of some of the things professional item writers and content specialists consider when developing large-scale test items. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to provide more information about the item development process.
Reference
MCAS Grade 6 Released Item, [link broken]