An item bank stores test items for review, modification, and assembly into test forms. It usually takes the form of a cloud-based application.
Performance tests vary in form, and item banks for such tests must accommodate the particular needs of the test at hand. For example, an item bank for a test with writing prompts may need to accommodate a rubric of model responses for each performance level.
A white paper by Wallace Judd, Ph.D., titled, “Item Banking for Performance Tests,” provides guidance on selecting item banks for performance testing. It is the eighth in the Performance Test Development Series.
The papers in this series are intended to be a resource for test developers, illustrating best practices in the performance-testing industry. They provide advice on performance testing topics from initial concept to test delivery.
These topics are presented in language that does not assume study in psychometrics.
The mathematics of any topics are expressed in abbreviated terms instead of the Greek alphabet, and all computations are illustrated in Excel examples.
The papers are published by Authentic Testing, leaders in the field of performance testing, in the hope that they will expand access to performance testing to a wider audience of practitioners, inspiring them to explore the possibilities inherent in performance testing.