ITEM BANK

An item bank is a collection of test items that may be easily

accessed for use in preparing examinations. Use of an item
bank and of good item banking software is a solution to the
effort and expense of preparing new items for each administration
of an assessment, whether the test is used by a teacher of a
small class; a university lecturer who has several large sections;
or the director of multifaceted programs for certification,
licensing, accountability, or norm-referenced survey testing.
When care is taken to see that all items are initially of high
quality, and when the items are easily retrievable for editing
and updating, the item bank will be more functional and item
quality will be maintained.

The widespread availability of computers makes it possible

to automate much of the effort of preparing assessments, as
well as to use the computer capability to enhance the quality of
the items and to improve the overall quality of examinations.
Unfortunately, the automation is easier to achieve than the
quality enhancement.