Appendix B: Computer-Based Item Types

Computer-Based Item and Response Types

As students engage with the computer-based assessments, they will be asked test questions that require them to respond in several ways, some of which may be new to students.

There are several resources that teachers and students can use to get ready for the assessment, including a practice test and a training test. As pointed out in appendix C of this manual, it is highly recommended that all students access the practice tests or training tests before taking an assessment. Doing so will provide students an opportunity to view and practice each of the item types.

The practice tests and training tests for CAASPP are available on the Practice and Training Tests web page.

Summary of Computer-Based Item Types and How to Provide Responses—General Assessments

Table 1 lists the different item types and briefly describes each one.

Table 1. Computer-Based Item and Response Types—General Assessments
Content Area	Type of Item	Brief Description of How to Respond
CSA	Audio Response	These items use a recording feature to capture a spoken response.
Science and CSA	Composite	These items contain two or more item parts from the machine-scored list.
Mathematics	Equation Responses (EQ)	These items require the student to enter equation or numeric response using on-screen panel containing mathematical characters.
ELA and CSA	Essay/Writing Extended Response (WER)	These items require keyboard entry.
ELA	Evidence Based Selected Response (EBSR)	These are two-part items: Part A, Respond to an MC item; and Part B, cite the evidence that supports the answer to Part A either as MC, MS, or Hot Text.
Mathematics	Grid Item (GI) – Drag and Drop	These items require the student to drag and drop single or multiple elements into a background image.
Mathematics	Grid Item (GI) – Graphing	These items require the student to plot points, draw lines, or both.
Mathematics	Grid Item (GI) – Hot Spot	These items require the student to select certain areas of an image.
Science and CSA	Grid Item (GI) – Graphic Gap Match	These items require the student to drag and drop single or multiple elements into a background image.
Science and CSA	Grid, Multiple Select	These items require the student to select two or more cells in a table.
CSA	Grid, Single Select	These items require the student to select a single cell in a table.
ELA	Hot Text Question, Selectable (HTQS)	These items contain a prompt followed by a section of text containing interactive words or phrases that a student can select.
Science and CSA	Inline Choice List, Multiple Select	These items contain multiple-options selected response.
Science and CSA	Inline Choice List, Single Select	These items contain a single-option selected response.
CSA	Inline Text Choices, Multiple Select	These items require the student to select multiple words or phrases.
CSA	Inline Text Choices, Single Select	These items require the student to select a single word or phrase.
ELA and mathematics	Match Interaction (MI)	These items require the student to match text or images in rows to values in columns.
Science and CSA	Match, Multiple Select	These items require the student to drag and drop two or more choices into the appropriate locations.
CSA	Match, Single Select	These items require the student to drag and drop a single choice into the appropriate location.
ELA, mathematics, science, and CSA	Multiple Choice, Multiple Select (MCMS)	These items require the student to select two or more options.
ELA, mathematics, science, and CSA	Multiple Choice, Single Select (MCSS)	These items require the student to select a single option.
CSA	Numeric	These items require the student to select a single-entry box with a numeric value that may contain decimals or a slash line to represent a fraction.
Science, ELA, mathematics, and CSA	Set Leader	These items contain a stimulus, such as a passage or image, with one or more questions assigned to it based on its content.
ELA and mathematics	Short Answer Text Response (SA)	These items require keyboard entry.
Science	Simulation	These items require the student to manipulate a set of inputs within an interactive stimuli to provide custom output that students use to respond to multiple items.
Mathematics	Table Interaction (TI)	These items require keyboard entry into table cells.
Science	CR	These items require keyboard alpha or numeric entry.
Science and CSA	Zone, Multiple Select	These items require the student to select two or more zones.
Science and CSA	Zone, Single Select	These items require the student to select a single zone.

Summary of Computer-Based Item Types and How to Provide Responses—Alternate Assessments

The CAAs feature innovative and technology-enhanced items that are designed to be engaging for students and represent a variety of types and approaches. Table 2 gives details about these items, describing the type of functionality with which the student and TE will be presented. TEs administering the CAA for Science also have the option of selecting Mark as No Response for an item to which the student is not orienting.

Table 2. Computer-Based Item and Scoring Types—Alternate Assessments
Type of Item	Brief Description of How to Respond
Bar-Picturegraph/Histogram	These items present a bar graph to the student to manipulate the bar height to represent an answer. Single Select—The student manipulates one graph bar. Multiple Select—The student manipulates two or more graph bars.
Composite	These items require the student to respond to a stimulus by using multiple item types in a single item with multiple response portions. Scoring is dependent on which item type combination is selected, and the raw weights for each part are combined to give an item score.
Graph	These items allow a student to plot points, lines, multiple segment lines, or any combination of these on a graph. A Graph may have points or lines that appear when the graph first displays that the student cannot manipulate, or it may be interactive, and the student must manipulate them to respond.
Grid	These items consist of a table with descriptions or characteristics, which the student then selects a box in a column or row for true-and-false or yes-or-no type of questions. Single Select—The student marks a single cell in a table for credit. Multiple Select—The student marks two or more cells in a table. The question might only allow one selection per row or column, but it might also have no restrictions in the number of cells a student can mark.
Inline Choice List	These items consist of questions with a drop-down list of choices to fill in the blank. Single Select—The student must fill a single blank from a drop-down list for credit. Multiple Select—The student must fill multiple blanks from a drop-down list for credit.
Inline Text Choices	These items present a short passage or a paragraph that contains underlined words or phrases. These underlined words or phrases represent the choices a student can select. Single Select—The student selects one term or phrase. Multiple Select—The student selects two or more terms or phrases.
Match (drag-and-drop)	These items require the student to move objects such as words or images by selecting and dragging the objects into a specific order or to a specific location in a table, passage, or image. Single Select—The student drags and drops a single choice into the appropriate location. Multiple Select—The student drags and drops two or more choices into the appropriate locations. NOTE: Some of the questions in this assessment require “dragging and dropping” objects into certain designated areas on the screen. Most items were designed to snap into place; however, some were not. For the items that do not snap into place, take care that the student is dropping the object precisely into the intended area(s) to ensure accurate system scoring. The object cannot overlap border lines or the edges of the intended area(s) and should rest squarely in the intended area(s). If the student is doing the dragging and dropping, help the student ensure objects are dropped fully within the intended area.
Multiple Choice	These items consist of a question and list of choices; they may also include a stimulus or subset of a passage as the stimulus. Single Select—The student must select the one correct choice to receive credit. Multiple Select—The student must select all correct choices to receive credit. Partial Credit—The student must respond to a stimulus by providing a direct response to the TE who then rates the response by assigning a weighted score, using the rubric provided in the DFA. Multiple Attempt (Try-2)—The student makes an initial selection, and, if the response is incorrect, one option is removed, leaving two remaining options from which to choose for a second attempt.
Numeric	The student responds by selecting a single-entry box with a numeric value. The numeric value may contain decimals or a slash line to represent a fraction.
Set Leader	This is a stimulus such as a passage or an image. The Leader has one or more questions assigned to it, based on its content.
Zones	These items have answer choices that are predefined “hotspots” on an image, word, or phrase within a sentence. When the student selects a spot, the selection is highlighted, shaded, or outlined in red. Single Select—The student selects one zone for credit. Multiple Select—The student selects two or more zones for credit.

Technical Skills to Access Embedded Resources

To access some of the embedded resources (such as strikethrough, highlighter, ASL videos, and text-to-speech) that are available to help work through these item types, students may need to access the context menu. Note the method to access the context menu is dependent on the student’s device type. Devices and methods are shown in table 3.

Table 3. Context Menu for Selecting with the Right Mouse Button
Device Type	Method to Access the Context Menu
Windows-based desktop or laptop (two-button mouse)	Select with the right mouse button.
macOS-based desktop or laptop (one-button mouse)	Hold down the [Ctrl] key on keyboard and then select with the mouse button.
iPad tablet (touchscreen)	Tap on the menu; this may reside in the upper-right corner of the secure browser application.
Chromebook (trackpad)	Hold down the [Alt] key on the keyboard and tap the trackpad.