Technical Manual - Renaissance Learning

Content and Item DevelopmentItem Design GuidelinesItem Design GuidelinesEach of the items was written to the following specifications:SimplicityItems should directly address the sub-domain and skill set objective in the moststraightforward manner possible. Evaluators should have no difficulty deducingthe exact nature of the skill set or skill being assessed by the item. Instructionsshould be explicit, clear, simple, and consistent from one item to the next.Screen LayoutThe testing screen should feel comfortable for the student and teacher.Background colors should be unobtrusive and relatively muted, and text andgraphics should stand out clearly against the background. The item backgroundmust be the same for all items on the test.Each item should consist of some combination of audio instructions, an on-screenprompt in the form of a cloze stem containing text or graphics, and three answerchoices containing letters, words, graphics, and sound.TextFor letter and word identification items, the type size should be relatively large,becoming smaller through the grades. The type size should be tied to items, sothat it varies according to the developmental level of a student; in other words,easier items should have larger type than more difficult items because thedifficulty will correspond roughly to grade placement.All STAR Early Literacy Enterprise test items will be administered aurally by thecomputer, so there should be no need for printed directions on-screen. For anyitems that require on-screen directions, the type should be a serif font ofappropriate size.Every effort should be made to use common words as the target and distracterwords in test items.For phonemic awareness and phonics items, the 44 phonemes (speech sounds)that make up the English language should be used. Phonemes should be depictedby one or more letters enclosed in a beginning and ending forward slash mark, asin Table 5.STAR Early LiteracyTechnical Manual24