1. Go to Assessments > Create for Items, Rubrics and Passages, and then select an item type. You can also create items directly from a test. See Edit a Test.
2. Define the item's subject, grade, standards, and other properties. Depending upon the item type, the available item properties will differ. Be sure to complete all required fields.
3. Click Add Passage to create a new passage or link to an existing passage in an item bank. Passages provide information needed to answer the question or a series of questions, such as a reading passage, graph, or map. Multiple passages may be assigned to a single item, and each passage may be paired to several items. Passages can be linked to items in the same bank or a different bank. If you create a new passage for an item in a bank, it will be saved to the same bank as the item.
4. Click in the Question Content field to enter the test question in the content editor.
   Using the content editor

   1. Click in the Question Content area to enter the test question.
   2. Use the content editor buttons to format, spell check, insert media files, insert equations, and so on. Hover over an icon to see each button's function.
   3. Optional: For the Text to Speech accommodation, you can provide alternate text to be read aloud in place of a selected word, math equation, image, audio file, or table. To do so, select the item you want to provide alternate text for, and then click the Alternate Text icon and enter the alternate text to be read aloud. You cannot select more than a single line of text. For tables, alternate text can be entered for content within the table or the entire table (in Table Properties). If alternate text is entered for both, only the alt text for the entire table will be read. You can remove alternate text for a single word or click the Clear All Text to Speech icon to remove all alternate text for the test item. You can use alternate text to improve the pronunciation of certain words. See the phonetic spelling guide.
   4. Optional: Click the Grade Level Vocabulary button to view Grade Level Vocabulary reference sheets. This button is available to districts that have uploaded grade-level vocabulary reference files for the item's grade level.

5. Click Preview to see the item as it will appear for students when taking an online test, and then select one of the following preview options. Note: Previewing a new, unsaved item will save it to your Personal Bank. If a new passage was created as well, it will also be saved to your Personal Bank. After previewing the item, you will have the option to Save to Another Bank, which will move the item and (optionally) linked passages to the designated bank.
   • In TestNav: Select to preview the item in TestNav without text-to-speech. Composite tasks display in TestNav with both activities on the same page. For tasks with more than two activities, the previewer displays which activity in the task (testlet) you are on. In the TestNav previewer, all tools and accommodations will be shown when you preview items, not just those that are selected, so it is recommended to preview the entire test in TestNav to view the test as students will see it.
   • In TestNav with Text to Speech: Select to preview the item in TestNav with text-to-speech enabled. This option will take longer to process than other preview options. Note that if you have already previewed speech-to-text and not made changes to the item, the text-to-speech feature will also be available in the "In TestNav" preview option.
   • In preview, you can enter answers to verify that scoring works correctly.
6. Click Save to Bank, and then select an item bank to save the item to. If you previewed the item, click Save to Personal Bank or Save to Another Bank to move the item to the appropriate bank.

• Teacher Explanations: Provide information about an answer choice that will be visible to teachers when reviewing test results in the Student Profile or Item Details (for supported item types).
• Student Explanations: Provide information about an answer choice that will be visible to students and parents when reviewing test results in the student portal.
• Teacher Instructions: Provide information on how to administer a test item. Teachers can download these instructions on the Test Details page.
• Formula reference sheets: A single formula sheet can be attached to a test item to provide math formulas, the periodic table, units of measure, etc. to students. Click the Select button under Formula Reference Sheet (note that tests may use a default reference sheet for the entire test). Formula sheets can be PDF, PNG, GIF, or JPG files up to 1 MB in size. In online tests, a reference sheet is opened from the Exhibit button.
• Tools and Manipulatives: Select an option to allow test-takers to use a manipulative, such as a ruler or calculator, on a test item. For more information see About Tools and Manipulatives.
• Grade Level Vocabulary: If your district has uploaded grade-level vocabulary reference files, you can view them in the Question Content editor by clicking the Grade Level Vocabulary button.
• Text to Speech: The Text to Speech accommodation is supported in TestNav. Text to Speech must be enabled in both Test Properties and a student's PNP to be available for a student. For the Text to Speech accommodation, you can provide alternate text to be read aloud in place of a selected word, math equation, image, audio file, or table. To do so, select the item you want to provide alternate text for, and then click the Alternate Text icon and enter the alternate text to be read aloud. You cannot select more than a single line of text. For tables, alternate text can be entered for content within the table or the entire table (in Table Properties). If alternate text is entered for both, only the alt text for the entire table will be read. You can remove alternate text for a single word or click the Clear All Text to Speech icon to remove all alternate text for the test item. You can use alternate text to improve the pronunciation of certain words. See the phonetic spelling guide.
• Links to external sites: In the text editor for the question content, select the text for the link and click the Insert/Edit Link button to add a link to an external website. Links to unsecure (HTTP) websites require browsers to be configured to use mixed content, and are not recommended.
• Add media: For information on adding media files (such as images, MP3 audio files, and MP4 video files) to test items, see Add Media to Test Items.
• Alerts and messages: Messages will appear on the screen for any actions that need to be completed as well as informational warnings. See Edit Items for information on specific alerts and warnings. When creating a test, you do not need to resolve required alerts before returning to the Test Detail page; however, the test cannot be scheduled until all required steps (alerts) have been completed.
• Symbols and special characters: Symbols and special characters are available via the Equation editor () or Special Characters () functions in the question content editor. Do not use cut and paste to move selected symbols from your Clipboard. While symbols created using this method may render correctly on the Item Detail and Test Detail pages, they may not appear correctly online.

To view or edit the following fields, click Additional Properties. For items that have been purchased from external vendors, these fields are imported. Your system may have up to three additional custom properties for items.

Field	Description
Name	Searchable names used to locate the item in item banks. This field is not optional for task item types.
Author	The person who created the item.
Publisher	Vendor that wrote the item or passageA reading passage that can be included with a test item. Passages can be created independently or while creating a test item., such as Equella, Kaplan, or ETS.
Keywords	Searchable keywords used to locate the item in item banks.
Anchor ItemAny item that has been flagged by a teacher or administrator for identification as an anchor item. This flag is user-defined, visible to only its creator, and may be used for a variety of purposes.	Any item that has been flagged by a teacher or administrator for identification as an anchor item. This flag is user-defined, visible to only its creator, and may be used for a variety of purposes.
Question Language	The language used to author the content. The item can be used to administer assessments to students in a language other than English. This option is available for school districts with system configurations that support multiple languages. For the Text to Speech accommodation, English or Spanish pronunciation will be used based on this setting. Note that the test-level Text to Speech language setting will override the item-level Question Language setting.
Response Language	The language used by students to respond to the question in a language other than English. This option is available for school districts with system configurations that support multiple languages. The Response Language will default to the option selected for the Question Language, with the exception being Chinese. If Chinese is selected as the Question Language, the Response Language field will default to English, as Chinese text cannot be entered for student answers.
Authored Difficulty	Difficulty determined for this item after it has been field tested.
Batch	The batch number. This field is used by Florida only.
Bloom's TaxonomyA multi-tiered scale for learning objectives used to define how well a skill or compentency is learned or mastered.	Represents levels of learning: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating.
Course ID	The course ID the item is associated with.
Cognitive Demand Level	Low, Moderate, or High.
Item Category	An attribute of open response item types.
Reading Level	Select the reading level range for this item.
Additional Item Identifier	A unique item number that may be provided when importing items from a publisher, such as Equella.
Webb	Norman Webb's Depth of Knowledge Levels: Level 1: Recall or recognition of a fact, information, concept or procedure Level 2: Basic Application of Skill/Concept - use of information, conceptual knowledge, follow and select appropriate procedures, two or more steps with decision points along the way, routine problems, organize/display data Level 3: Strategic Thinking - require reasoning, developing a plan or sequence of steps to approach problem; require some decision making and justification; abstract and complex; often more than one possible answer Level 4: Extending Thinking - an investigation or application to real world; requires time to research, think, and process multiple conditions of the problem or task; non-routine manipulations, across disciplines/content areas/multiple sources
Year	The year the test item was imported or created.
Hard to Measure Content Area	Indicates whether the test itemA test question, such as True/False, Matching, Open Response, and so on. Test items can be created in Assessment Admin or imported through the QTI import process. is in a hard-to-measure content area, such as World Languages. Items that are imported through QTIThe IMS Question & Test Interoperability (QTI) specification enables the exchange of item, test, and results data between authoring tools, item banks, test constructional tools, learning systems, and assessment delivery systems. Test items that meet the QTI 2.1 specification can be imported into Schoolnet. Import that are flagged as hard-to-measure will maintain the flag when they are imported.

Messages will appear when creating or editing an item to notify you of any alerts or warnings for the test item you are working on. While a test is in a draft state, you can work on new items before finalizing previous items. However, draft tests can be moved to the Ready to Schedule state only when all required alerts are resolved. Tests can be scheduled with unresolved warnings, but not with unresolved alerts.

The following table lists some common alerts and warnings. It is not a comprehensive list of all warnings and alerts.

If a required alert appears, you must resolve it before scheduling the test.

Message	Required	Troubleshooting
Required	Yes	Appears in red text below required fields. Select or enter all required content.
At least one answer must be selected as correct	Yes	Select a correct answer using the checkboxes.
Standard alignment is required	Yes	Select a standard using the standard picker (click Select Standards).
Incomplete	Yes	The item is missing a required field. This alert appears when hovering over the alert icon for an item when editing a test.
Not worth any points	No	Assign at least one point to an answer choice.
Primary alignment is not from preferred standards document	No	Appears when the standard you select using the standard picker is from a different standard set than the preferred standards used in test creation.
Fix the errors in the highlighted tabs	Yes	For item types with gaps or containers, fix any errors that appear in the answer choice tabs.
Multiple correct answers (multiple choice)	No	Make sure only one answer is selected as correct.
The question must contain at least one gap (gap match and graphic gap match)	Yes	Click Insert New Gap in the question content area to add gaps.
At least one correct answer choice per gap is required (gap match and graphic gap match)	Yes	Make sure each gap has at least one correct answer.
Other alerts		This table is not comprehensive. You may see other alerts for specific item types that need to be resolved.