Create an Assessment Definition Using Question Items

Before you can score an assessment, you must create an assessment definition. The process for building an assessment definition from the Question Item Library involves:

• Navigating to the curriculum statements (e.g. objectives) you want to assess.
• Reviewing the question items available to assess those curriculum statements.
• Selecting the questions you want to add to the assessment definition.

Create an Assessment Definition

1. Select Assessment > Assessment Library.
2. In the Assessment Definitions tab of the Assessment Library page, click Add New. The Add New Assessment Definition page appears.
3. In the Name field, enter the unique name of the assessment definition.
4. In the Stored At field, click the Select link to specify where in the curriculum the new assessment definition will be stored.
5. In the Tags section, select the descriptors that are optionally defined by your school district. You will only see tags here if any have been defined.
6. In the Method field, select Build Assessment from Question Item Library. If this option does not appear, then you do not have access to the Question Item Library.

7. In the Details section, select the curriculum outline level that you want to assess.
   Note: There may be only one option.

8. If you plan to score this assessment with the plain paper scanner or with online assessment, you can check the Enable Generating Random Variations option. Otherwise, proceed to step 9.
   

   If you enable this option, users will then have the option to generate random variations of the assessment to help prevent cheating. The questions will appear in a different order in each variation.

   This functionality is available only if the full test question content is available in the assessment definition, and if the assessment will be administered with the plain paper scanning system or administered online to students.

9. Click Accept. Go on to the next procedure to select question items for the new assessment definition.

Select Questions to Add

Curriculum statements at the outline level you choose on the previous screen (e.g. Objectives) that have question items aligned to them are indicated here by an expand icon and a count of how many items are aligned to that curriculum statement.

1. Click the expand icon to see the question items, and then select the checkbox for the question items to include in the assessment. You can choose questions aligned to a variety of curriculum statements (assuming such question items have been populated in your system).

2. Click the Assessment Preview tab to see a preview of the test.

3. To remove a question, click the delete (X) icon next to it and then confirm by clicking the Delete Question button that appears.

4. To change the order of a question, use the up or down arrow icons to the left of each question item.

5. After you have selected and ordered all of the question items for the objective, click Save Assessment Definition.

6. On the Preview tab, enter the cutoff scores that students must receive to attain the corresponding rubric level (see explanation of cutoff scores below), and then click the Save Cutoffs button.

About cutoff scores

Each cutoff score specifies the minimum percentage a student must score to attain the corresponding proficiency level. The student's percentage score is computed by dividing the number of points the student actually received by the maximum possible points the student could have received.

Make the Assessment Definition Active

Note that no one will be able to administer this assessment until it is made active.

1. Scroll down the screen and review the entire assessment.

2. Scroll back up to the top of the screen. In the "Note" section under the Setup drop-down, click the Click here link to set the assessment definition status to Active. The assessment is now ready to be administered.

• • You can administer it online as described in Online Assessment.

  • Or you can click Preview and then Print to print the assessment for offline administration.