Whole Item Checklist

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1. The item must reflect an important curricular objective
   
   
   -if I could only ask one question, is this the question I would ask?
   
   -if I could have the student remember one thing from this course ten years from now, would this be it?
   
   -avoid temptation to ask question just because you have one written
   
   
2. The item should focus on a single problem.
   
   
   -the solution can involve several steps, but only one question should be asked
   
   
3. The item is totally independent of all other items for its correct answer.
   
4. The item should be free of cultural, gender, or other biases
   
   
   If all your math problems are about baseball with nothing on sewing, it might be biasing math scores;
   
   -if poetry question asks about allusion to English fairy tales, it may be bit rough on transfer students from China and Nigeria
   
   -can get subtle -- Christian educator complained that literature choices on English 30 exam were all downbeat because we seemed to think depressing was sophisticated, whereas he liked to accentuate the positive, so his kids werediscriminated against...
   
   
5. The item is not unduly demanding of the student's total time for the test.
   
   
   - you can'have one question require five readings, 20 minutes with a calculator and count it the same as a simple recall question
   
   - if student is going to read some passage or analyze data, try to amortize it out over several questions -- more of which we will consider later
   
   
   
6. The item should be clear and contain simple language.
   
   The sentence structure and vocabulary should not present any unnecessary challenge to comprehension --
   -Unnecessary wording and details should be eliminated from both the stem and alternatives
   
   -key words from a reading passage or data set should not be repeated in the stem or in an alternative
   
7. Avoid asking opinion type questions.
   
   
   -we don't mark people for their opinions in this country
   
   some confusion here because:
   
   - can use multiple choice formats for opinion surveys, but can't be on same test, or even same day as regular test
   
   
8. Make sure whole item is on same page
   
   
   - I thought this was self-evident but lately have had a rash of students who allowed their word processor to put last alternative on top of next page;
   
   
   
   or
   
   another problem occurs when testers have passage on one page and question on another page-- so half kids miss passage altogether, and other half rustling pages back and forth going nuts...
   
   

Remember to proofread whole item: some folks forget to check distracters, just read stem, right answer, and go on

-so kid knows if he finds a typo, probably not in correct answer


-less of an issue with spell checkers on computers

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