Item attributes

Grade Level

Choose the grade level for which the item was created.

Depth of Knowledge (DOK)

The complexity of mental processing that must occur to answer a question, perform a task, or generate a product:

• Level 1: Recall and Reproduction: Basic tasks that require students to recall or reproduce knowledge and skills.

• Level 2: Skills and Concepts: Requires students to go beyond a description or explanation of recalled information to describe or explain a result or "how" or "why."

• Level 3: Short-term Strategic Thinking: Short-term use of higher-order thinking processes, such as analysis and evaluation, to solve real-world problems with predictable outcomes.

• Level 4: Extended Thinking: Extended use of higher-order thinking processes such as synthesis, reflection, assessment, and plan adjustment over time.

Complexity

The cognitive demand associated with an assessment item:

• Low: Demonstrate simple skills or abilities.

• Moderate: Perform procedures that go beyond the customary, are not specified, and ordinarily have more than a single step.

• High: Perform several steps involving abstract reasoning and planning.

Difficulty

The degree of challenge for assessment questions based on the percentage of students who chose the correct answer:

• Easy: Items for which more than 70 percent of students chose the correct answer.

• Average: Items for which 40-70 percent of students chose the correct answer.

• Challenging: Items for which less than 40 percent of students chose the correct answer.

Taxonomy

The framework for categorizing learning objectives used to organize forms and levels of learning:

• Remembering: Exhibit memory of learned materials by recalling facts, terms, basic concepts, and answers.

• Understanding: Demonstrate an understanding of facts and ideas by organizing, comparing, translating, interpreting, giving descriptions, and stating the main ideas.

• Applying: Solve problems in new situations by applying acquired knowledge, facts, techniques, and rules differently.

• Analyzing: Examine and break information into parts by identifying motives or causes to make inferences and find evidence to support generalizations.

• Evaluating: Present and defend opinions by making judgments about information, the validity of ideas, or quality of work based on a set of criteria.

• Creating: Compile information together in a different way by combining elements in a new pattern or proposing alternative solutions.

Subject

Choose the course subject to which the item best aligns. Available course subjects are determined by the course files sent to PowerSchool.

Answer Key Types

Choose a type of answer key item to display associated items created for Answer Key Only tests:

• Answer Key Choice: Multiple-choice items for answer key only tests.

• Answer Key Rubric Scored: Rubric scored item for answer key only tests.

• Answer Key Numeric Grid: Numeric grid item for answer key only tests.

• Answer Key Drawing: Drawing item for answer key only tests.

• Answer Key Extended Text: Extended text item for answer key only tests.

Copyright

Choose whether to include items that contain copyrighted content.

Performance Level Descriptor (PLD)

Also known as the achievement level, PLD outlines the knowledge, skills, and practices a student who has achieved a particular performance level should be able to demonstrate:

• Level 2: Demonstrate partial command of the grade-level standards.

• Level 3: Demonstrate moderate command of the grade-level standards.

• Level 4: Demonstrate strong command of the grade-level standards.

• Level 5: Demonstrate distinguished command of the grade-level standards.

Readiness/Support Item

Select the Readiness Item or Support Item for items used for Texas testing.

Category

Choose a Category from 1 to 7 for Texas testing.

KDS- Spanish

Refers to any Spanish content items from Key Data Systems (a third-party vendor).

KDS- English

Refers to any English content items from Key Data Systems (a third-party vendor).

Language

Choose the appropriate language to display items written in a different language.

Time-Dependent

Indicates an item with a time dependency.

Adaptive

Indicates an item that may be considered adaptive.