You should write an assessment item for each objective whose accomplishment you want to measure. Mager provides these steps to follow when writing a criterion assessment item:

1. Read the objective and determine what it wants someone to be able to do (i.e., identify the performance).
2. Draft a test item that asks students to exhibit that performance.
3. Read the objective again and note the conditions under which the performing should occur (i.e., tools and equipment provided, people present, key environmental conditions).
4. Write those conditions into your item.
5. For conditions you cannot provide, describe approximations that are as close to the objective as you can imagine.
6. If you feel you must have more than one item to test an objective, it should be because (a) the range of possible conditions is so great that one performance won't tell you that the student can perform under the entire range of conditions, or (b) the performance could be correct by chance. Be sure that each item calls for the performance stated in the objective, under the conditions called for.

If you follow these steps and still find yourself having trouble drafting an assessment item, it is almost always be because the objective isn't clear enough to provide the necessary guidance.

Dick, Carey and Carey list several criteria that you should consider when writing test items:

1. Goal-Centered Criteria
2. Learner-Centered Criteria
3. Context-Centered Criteria
4. Assessment-Centered Criteria

Let's take a brief look at each one.

Goal-Centered Criteria

As we have inferred already, test items should be congruent with the terminal and performance objectives by matching the behavior involved. What this means is that each test item should measure the exact behavior and response stated in the objective. The language of the objective should guide the process of writing the assessment items. A well-written objective will prescribe the form of test item that is most appropriate for assessing achievement of the objective. Appropriate assessment items should answer "yes" to the following questions:

1. Does the assessment item require the same performance of the student as specified in the instructional objective?
2. Does the assessment item provide the same conditions (or "givens") as those specified in the instructional objective?

For example, if the performance of an objective states that learners will be able to state or define a term, the assessment item should ask them to state or define the term, not to choose the definition from a list of answers.

Another common bad practice is teaching one thing and then testing for another. You should not use a test item that asks for a different performance than the one called for by your objectives. For example, if you have an objective that says students need to be able to make change, it would be deceitful to then have test items such as the following:

1. Define money
2. Name the president on the fifty-dollar bill.
3. Describe the risks of not being able to count.

None of these items asks the student to do what the objective asks, which is to make change. As a result you will not know if your students can perform as required. Kemp, Morrison, and Ross (1998) cite several more examples of "mismatches" between objectives and assessment. In one example a college professor whose objective asked students to analyze and synthesize developments of the Vietnam War simply asked students to list those developments in the final exam. Other examples include a corporate training course on group leadership skills that included objectives that were performance or skill-based, yet the sole assessment items were multiple-choice. As these examples illustrate, it is important to determine which learning domain your objective falls into in order to write the most appropriate type of assessment.

So why do we keep saying that the performance indicated in the assessment item has to match the performance in the objective? Well, the point of testing is to be able to predict whether your learners will be able to do what you want them to do when they leave you, and the best way to do that is to observe the actual performance that you are trying to develop. Mager (1988) provides a good story to illustrate this point. Suppose your surgeon were standing over you with gloved hands and the following conversation took place:

Surgeon: Just relax. I'll have that appendix out in no time.
You: Have you done this operation before?
Surgeon: No, but I passed all the tests.
You: Oh? What kind of tests?
Surgeon: Mostly multiple-choice. But there were some essay items, too.
You: Goodbye!

So, would you prefer your surgeon to have had some meaningful, practical types of assessments or strictly paper-and-pencil-tests?

Learner-Centered Criteria

Test items should take into consideration the characteristics and needs of the learners. This includes issues such as learners' vocabulary and language levels, motivational and interest levels, experiences and backgrounds, and special needs. To start with, test items should be written using language and grammar that is familiar to the learners. Another important aspect of learner-centered assessment is that the level of familiarity of experiences and contexts needs to be taken into consideration. Learners should not be asked to demonstrate a desired performance in an unfamiliar context or setting. The examples, question types, and response formats should also be familiar to learners, and your items should be free of any gender, racial, or cultural bias.

Context-Centered Criteria

Remember the context analysis you wrote? Well, when writing test items you should consider both the performance context and the learning context your wrote about. It is important to make your test items as realistic and close to the performance setting as possible. This will help ensure the transfer of skills from the learning environment to the eventual performance environment. According to Dick, Carey and Carey, "the more realistic the testing environment, the more valid the learners' responses will be" (pg. 153). It is also important to make sure the learning environment contains all the necessary tools to adequately simulate the performance environment.

Assessment-Centered Criteria

Test items should be well written and free of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Directions should be clearly written to avoid any confusion on the part of the learner. It's also important to avoid writing "tricky" questions that feature double negatives, deliberately confusing directions, or compound questions. Your learners should miss questions because they do not have the necessary skill, not because your directions were unclear, or because you wanted to throw them off with unclear wording.

The question inevitable arises as to how many items are necessary to achieve mastery of an objective? For some skills only one item is necessary. However, for others it may require more than one item. For example, a second grade student may be asked to demonstrate his mastery of an arithmetic rule by means of the item:

3M + 2M = 25; M = ?

Obviously, the purpose of assessment would be to determine if the student could perform a class of arithmetic operations similar to this, not whether he or she is able to perform this single one. Normally, items of the same type and class would be employed to ensure the reliability of the results.

Also, on any single item a student may make a correct response because he or she has seen the correct response before, or perhaps has just made a good guess. In this case several items may be warranted. With some assessment items, though, guessing is not something that could be rewarded, so you may only require a single performance. Another possibility is that a single item may be missed because a student has been misled by some confusing characteristic of the item, or has simply made a "stupid" mistake.

It is essential to keep in mind that, no matter how many items are created for an objective, the conclusion aimed for should not be, "how many did they get correct?" but rather, "does the number correct indicate mastery of the objective?" Also keep in mind that while two items may be better than one, it may also yield a 50-50 result, with a student getting one right and one wrong. Would this indicate mastery? Gagne (1988) suggests having three items in this case instead of two, as two out of three provides a better means of making a reliable decision about mastery.

Some intellectual skills, as well as psychomotor and attitudinal skills, cannot be assessed using common objective-type test items. They require either the creation of some type of product or a performance of some sort. These types of performances need to be assessed using an evaluation or observation instrument. Dick, Carey and Carey suggest that you provide guidance during the learning activities and construct a rubric to assist in the evaluation of the performance or product.

Attitudes are unique in that they require in that they are not directly measurable. Instead, the best way to assess attitudes is to observe the learner exhibiting or not exhibiting the desired attitude. During observation, it is important that the learners be given the choice to behave according to their attitudes. If you are observing a performance and the learners know they are being observed their behavior may not reflect their true attitudes. If direct observation isn't possible you can have students respond to a questionnaire or open-ended essay question. Much care should be taken when constructing such tests, though. If you simply give them a test with leading questions and/or directions describing the nature of the test they are likely to give you the answer they think you want to read. The results would not tell you how they would act when faced with a real-world situation involving that attitude.

Dick, Carey and Carey make the following suggestions regarding the development of these types of assessment instruments:

Writing Directions

Directions for performances and products should clearly describe what is expected of the learners. You should include any special conditions and decide on the amount of guidance you will provide during the assessment. In some situations you may want to provide no guidance.

Developing the Instrument

When assessing performances, products, or attitudes you will need to create an assessment instrument to help you evaluate the performance, product, or attitude. Dick, Carey and Carey offer five steps to creating this instrument:

1. Identify the elements to be evaluated: These elements should be taken directly from the behaviors and criteria included in your objectives. Make sure that the elements you select can be observed during the performance.
   
   
2. Paraphrase each element: Elements should be paraphrased to cut down on the length of the instrument. Also, make sure that a "Yes" response on the instrument always corresponds with a positive performance, and a "No" response with a negative performance.
   
   
3. Sequence the elements on the instrument: The order in which the elements are listed should match the natural order of the performance. For example, if you are creating an instrument to help assess the changing of a tire you would not put "Tightens lug nuts on new tire" at the top of the list.
   
   
4. Select the type of judgment to be made by the evaluator: When evaluating a performance, product, or attitude, judgments can be made using checklists, rating scales, or frequency counts. Checklists provide a simple "yes" or "no" as to whether or not a learner meets a criterion or element. Rating scales take this a step further by allowing for in-between ratings instead of strictly "yes" or "no". Frequency counts are used for indicating the number of times a learner meets or displays a criterion or element. This is good if the element can be observed more than once.
   
   
5. Determine how the instrument will be scored: With checklists you can simply add up the "yes" answers to obtain a score for each objective and for the entire process or product. With rating scales you can add up the numbers assigned for each element. Frequency counts are a little more complicated as you have to determine how to create a score. You can add up the frequencies for an element, but you would still have to determine what constitutes a good score and whether a lack of an occurrence would be detrimental.

Dick, Carey and Carey provide good examples of assessment instruments for evaluating psychomotor skills and attitudes on pages 169 and 171 of their book.

Here are some examples of good and bad assessment items:

Objective: The student will state the time shown on an analog clock to the nearest 5 minutes.

Bad assessment: Students are given a time and are asked to draw the corresponding minute and hour hands on a blank clock diagram.
Good assessment: Students are given pictures of analog clock faces and are asked to state the time indicated on each clock.

Objective: The student will set up an attractive merchandise display in the student store, with appropriate signs.

Badassessment: Students are asked to write a paragraph describing the six elements of an attractive merchandise display.
Good assessment: Students are scheduled a week to set up an attractive merchandise display in the student bookstore. Displays are evaluated using a criteria checklist.

Objective: Students will write a descriptive essay of at least 300 words.

Bad assessment: Have students read several examples of good essays.
Bad assessment: Write a descriptive essay in class by having each student contribute a sentence.
Bad assessment: Have each student orally describe an unknown object until the other students can guess what the object is.
Good assessment: Have students choose a topic and write an essay describing it.