Using Item Banks

Aware has the ability to store locally created assessment questions in a district wide bank as well as any other bank questions that your district has purchased. These questions are connected to particular standards and are therefore sorted by course. Depending on how Aware is configured, questions can be submitted by teachers and staff or created directly by administrators only.

The item bank is managed by staff members with the Data Administrator or Item Bank Administrator role. Staff members can also be added as a course delegate for a course which will allow them full editing rights for a course's item bank.

 Access Method 

The access method can be changed from the Item Bank Tab in Aware. Select Approve Questions in the bottom left part of the window, then select Set Access Method.

You may choose to allow item bank contributions by staff members and choose the item bank question approval settings. Decide whether or not staff members can contribute to the item bank and if those submissions should be automatically approved by placing a check mark next to those options. The example below is not the default which means that staff will not be allowed to submit item bank questions unless manually enabled. This section will assume that staff can submit questions, and that they require approval.

Set Default Security

From the Item Bank Tab, question security can be managed for all test banks by selecting Approve Questions. In the bottom left of the interface, click Set Default Security. This option allows security to be reset for an entire bank at a time. Access permissions can be set so that test questions are available for district assessments, campus assessments, and teacher tests. To reset security for any new questions added to the bank, select an access permission and click Save. Security on questions already in the bank will not be changed. To reset security for ALL questions in the bank, select an access permission, click Reset Security Settings, and click Save. Use caution when clicking the Reset Security Settings button, as this will reset security for all questions in the item bank. Visit this article for more information about item bank security. 

Creating Questions

Questions are accessed and added to the item bank on the Item Bank Tab. Any purchased item bank questions can also be viewed in the item bank, and the security can be changed so that questions are available for district, campus level, or teacher tests. To edit a purchased item bank question text, they will first need to be added to a test, and then changes can be made for that test.

The item bank is organized by course and sub divided by student expectations. When selecting a course, the reporting category(if applicable) show up in green text below the student expectations. This allows tested objectives to be easily viewed when creating questions.

To create a question:

• Select the course and student expectation/learning standard

The item bank will be divided into the following categories: My Questions (the questions you create), Local Bank Questions (the questions published to the local bank), and purchased item banks. 

•  Click the Add Question button and select the type of question to add
• Enter the question text and answer choices on the Question Tab
• Choose the desired question options on the Options Tab
• Add any keyword search text on the Keywords Tab
• The Standards Tab displays the associated Learning Standard and Reporting Category if it applies; select a new process standard if applicable
• Associate question to a Resource if applicable on the Resources Tab
• Select the access permissions on the Security Tab
• Click Finished to save changes to your personal bank or Publish to add this question to the Local bank

Note: If a question's security status is set to 'available for District Assessments', but not published, only the creator will be able to add the question to a test. The question must be published in order for other staff members to use on an assessment.

Tips for creating items

• If you copy and paste text from another source, be sure to click the Clear Formatting button on the Questions tab.
• Add reading passages, graphs and charts as Resources when you have multiple questions associated with the resource. Resources have to be approved before adding associated questions.
• Be sure to cite resources.

Approve Questions

Item bank questions use the same editing options as the test editor. As staff create and submit questions, they can be viewed in the Approve Questions section of the Item Bank Tab. The questions will be divided by course.

• Click Approve Questions
• Select the course
• To approve or deny the question, hover the mouse within the upper right section of question until the edit button appears
• Click the Edit button to open the question editor

The question editor allows any of the general question options to be edited before approving. The security question can also be reset on the Security Tab to allow the question to be used on local campus assessments and other teacher created tests. The Log Tab will display the staff member's name who created and submitted the question as well as any other actions taken on the question.

To approve the question, click Approve in the lower right corner of the question editor. To reject the question, click Reject.

View the video on Approving Local Item Bank Items.

Licensing and Item Banks

If your teachers, campus or district created a test using item bank items in the past, and that item bank is no longer subscribed to by the district, then those test items will no longer appear on tests. You may be experiencing this issue if you previously built a test with these items and the district has since decided to no longer subscribe to this particular item bank.

We request that you please contact your district-level assessment coordinator regarding your need to still access these test items for assessment purposes.