Understanding the Content Development Cycle … Or Why Item Development Costs So Much Time & Money

This is presented by the Large-Scale Assessment SIGIMIE.

It takes 18 to 30 months to develop content for a high-quality, large-scale assessment—even after the test design is finalized. Furthermore, test development teams are constantly juggling three overlapping development cycles at any given time, interconnected through linked operational and field testing.

In this webinar, Marjorie Wine will guide you through the core content development cycle—a process that remains remarkably consistent across assessments. From its six major stages (plus field and operational testing) to its dozens of intricate sub-steps, you will gain an insider’s view of the complex processes led by Content Development Professionals (CDPs) and discover how their work provides the foundational evidence supporting an assessment’s validity argument.

Webinar Agenda & Format

• Presentation (60 mins): A step-by-step breakdown of the content development cycle, overlapping operational/field testing phases, and cost/time drivers.
• Discussion & Q&A (Up to 30 mins): An interactive session to answer your questions and discuss real-world applications with the speaker.

About the Presenter

Marjorie Wine has worked in content development in large scale assessment—the development of items and instruments—for over 20 years. She has worked at virtually every major test development organization in the country and has worked both client-side and vendor-side. Marjorie has risen from entry-level content development professional to overseeing all content development (i.e., including ELA, math, science and social studies) for multiple national assessments, and has contributed to state tests from Massachusetts to Hawaii—and many states in between.