Community Item Banking and Assessment Development Project

Assessment Technology Incorporated is pleased to offer Community Item Banking and Assessment Development Project workshops. This month, ATI is working with the first registered participants in project workshops to develop assessment item specifications, items, and supplemental materials relevant to non-state-tested subjects/grades and for community sharing. These materials will enable all participants to utilize the resulting shared item banks in development of assessments to be used in meeting the requirements of various state educator effectiveness legislation. We invite you to join us in this mission to develop accurate and reliable assessments of student growth for non-state-tested subject areas and grades by registering to participate in the project.

In each of the two-day workshops, participants get hands-on training in the use of ATI's Galileo K-12 Bank Builder application. This is the same tool that is used in the construction of ATI's English language arts, math, and science benchmark and formative item banks. Working collaboratively with each other and with ATI, those attending the workshop are assisted in developing proficiency in constructing item specifications and items that can be used in construction of valid and reliable assessments. Once administered, these assessments can be scored online and the results reported using Galileo's innovative technologies.

Workshop participants develop items in their subject areas to measure student achievement and through an integrated review process enhance and expand the assessment items they have developed. The integrated review process is facilitated both by the expertise of project participants and by use of ATI expertise and proprietary technology. The workshops also focus on assisting participants use these teacher-created items. In the workshop, participants explore Galileo's statistical capabilities and reporting features including the ways in which they can help demonstrate the growth in student comprehension and proficiency.

ATI will be organizing repeated sessions of the workshops later this summer and in the fall of 2012 to assist districts in the continuing expansion of these shared district-developed item banks for assessment of non-state tested subjects and grades.

ATI would like to thank Marana Unified School District’s Mountain View High School and Scottsdale Unified School District’s Chaparral High School for hosting the first rounds of workshops. If you are interested in registering for the project and participating in a future workshop, please contact your Field Services Coordinator at 1.800.367.4762 or at GalileoInfo@ati-online.com.