Mastery Item Bank offers pre-built questions that Otus users can incorporate into their Advanced Assessments. These questions are linked to Common Core standards and include many other searchable criteria. Because the items have been professionally researched, built, and tested with valid and reliable results, they are unable to be edited by the Otus user. The Mastery Item Bank is only available in Advanced Assessments.
Access to the Mastery Item Bank is based on district settings. For more information about what item banks you have access to, please speak with your main Otus contact or reach out to the Otus Support Team via the chat tool.
Create the Advanced Assessment
Step 1: Select the Assessments module
Step 2: Select Create Assessment in the upper-right corner.
Step 3: Select Advanced from the Otus Assessment options. Give the assessment a name, select a type, and select a grading scale.
Step 4: Select Create.
Access the Mastery Item Bank
Step 1: Click on the dropdown that says My Items.
Step 2: Select Mastery Item Bank.
Search the Mastery Item Bank
Option 1: Checkbox Filters
Step 1: Select the criteria you wish to search for
Each criterion you "check" should populate in the "tags" section (see image below). This particular example shows searching for a Subject of ELA, a Depth of Knowledge of 1. Recall, and a Cognitive Demand of Understanding. These are listed in the tags section as Subject, Language, DepthOfKnowledge: 1, and cognitive demand: Understanding.
Step 2: Click Search
The items that populate in the list below will include all of the criteria you checked.
Option 2: Search by Standard
Select Search by Standard
Navigate through the menu to choose the standard you wish to find questions for. Click on each folder to review the available standards from that particular standards authority (Common Core, State specific). You can continue to navigate through each folder to find what you want, or you can type the standard code or keywords in the search box to search through the child folders.
Click the desired standard. Once the standard is selected it will automatically begin the search. You do not have to click search.
The items that populate the list are linked to the standard you searched for. Please note that those questions will also likely be attached to additional standards other than the one you searched for.
Note: the standard appears in the search field as a tag noted with a string of numbers and letters, rather than the name of the standard itself.
Option 3: Search by Content
You can search by titles, keywords, and question types. See the image below.
1: Search by title here. Example: "E605214"
2: Search by keyword here. Example: "weather"
3: Click the dropdown arrow to select a question/feature type.
4: Select "Published" (not required).
Add Items from the Mastery Item Bank to Your Assessment
Once you have generated a list of items using one of the search methods listed above, click on the item name (Navigate--1079081 for this example) to preview the item.
From the preview window, click Add.
You will then see the item from the Mastery Item Bank included under the Assessment Builder section at the top of the page.
💡 Tip: Administrator accounts will see an additional option below the Assessment Builder window to Hide item bank items above from teachers. Consider toggling this button ON if you will be using Mastery items for benchmark or other district-wide assessments to ensure that students do not see the same questions duplicated on teacher-created assessments.
Mastery Item Rubrics for Essays
The Mastery Item Bank includes rubrics for all Extended Text (Essay with rich text) items. All other items including what we classify as short text (single-line answers) do not include a rubric.
For the extended text, the rubrics can be found by using the same item reference with “_rubric” added at the end.
For example, the item you selected can be found by using the Reference field to search by the item number which is displayed as the title of each Mastery item which in this example is Navigate--576770. The reference field is labeled with a 1 in the screenshot included in the Search by Content section above. You can search for the rubric by adding _rubric to the item's reference number - Navigate--576770_rubric.
Otus Live Video
Click to see a video from our Otus Live series on creating an Otus assessment using the mastery item bank.
Click to see a video from our Otus Live series on creating an Otus assessment using the mastery item bank.
FAQ and Troubleshooting
Click to see FAQ and troubleshooting details.
Click to see FAQ and troubleshooting details.
Can the items from Mastery Item Bank be edited in any way?
No. Because the items have been professionally researched, built, and tested with valid and reliable results, they are unable to be edited by the Otus user, including the scoring.
Can I change the standards on Mastery Item Bank questions? There are many standards linked to items in the Mastery Item Bank, and they all appear in the Gradebook.
No, since the item can't be edited, this also means the linked standards cannot be customized. Therefore, any standards that the district has enabled in the Otus Gradebook (state, NGSS, CCSS) will appear in the Gradebook.
If you use Otus to run progress reports/report cards, one option would be to create standards tags that include the specific standards you want to appear on the report card. In that case, the extraneous standards would still show in the Gradebook, but not on the report card.
Who developed the Mastery Item Bank?
They were developed by Certica. Here is a document that references their creation.