November 13, 2026
An assessment system can deliver sophisticated reporting, but the value of those insights still depends on the questions students are asked.
PowerSchool Assessment (Performance Matters) combines assessment administration and reporting with a broad collection of PowerSchool-developed items and pre-built assessments. Together, these resources can help districts establish a strong foundation for their assessment programs while retaining the flexibility to address local priorities.
What kind of assessment content does PowerSchool offer?
Districts have different assessment strategies and needs. Some need a comprehensive content foundation, while others are looking to supplement existing resources or address a particular subject, grade, or assessment purpose.
The PowerSchool Assessment Content Bundle provides several options that districts can deploy or customize within Performance Matters.
General Item Bank
More than 130,000 items across English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies, with a range of item types and levels of rigor.
Pre-Built Item Bank
More than 24,000 items and 800 pre-built assessments, including cold reads, passages, and unique items suited to formal assessment use.
Performance Task Item Bank
Content designed to address the need for students to demonstrate learning in authentic contexts.
State-Released Item Banks
Items from states that have granted permission for their use, providing students with opportunities to practice with state-released content.
Our commitment to quality and validity
Assessment results are only as meaningful as the questions behind them. When an item includes unintended clues, unclear language, or distracting details, students may arrive at the correct answer without fully demonstrating the knowledge or skill being assessed. For example, a repeated term or pattern in multiple-choice answers could help a student narrow their choices based on test-taking strategy rather than their understanding of the standard.
That’s why PowerSchool’s internal content specialists use established style and validity guidelines to review items for clarity, reduce unintended clues, and keep each question focused on the knowledge or skill it is intended to measure.
Who are the content specialists?
PowerSchool assessment content is developed and reviewed by an internal team with subject-matter expertise across history, science, math, and English language arts, supported by graphic design expertise.
Because the team works with the same style, sensitivity, and validity guidance throughout content development, quality expectations can be applied consistently from item creation through review. Subject-matter experts develop the content, while copy editors provide an additional layer of review for clarity, alignment, and adherence to established guidance.
This combination of subject expertise, shared editorial practices, and structured review helps PowerSchool maintain consistency across its assessment libraries.
What guidance do they follow?
The PowerSchool assessment content team works from these three sets of guidance:
1. Item-writing style guidance
PowerSchool assessment items are developed using established style guidance that promotes clear, concise, and grade-appropriate questions aligned to the intended standard. The guidance also supports consistent answer choices, plausible distractors, and language that allows students to demonstrate what they know without unnecessary confusion or unintended clues.
The guide has evolved through more than a decade of iteration. The team revisits it in response to changing industry expectations and feedback from PowerSchool customers.
Feedback groups supporting major projects have included customers in Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. When recurring themes appear across customer feedback, the team reevaluates the guidance and incorporates appropriate changes.
2. Bias and sensitivity guidance
PowerSchool applies bias and sensitivity guidance to help ensure assessment items are clear, accessible, and focused on the knowledge or skill being measured. The guidance informs choices around names, images, representation, and other contextual details so that unnecessary distractions or unfamiliar contexts do not interfere with a student’s ability to demonstrate what they know.
3. Validity best practices
Validity guidance keeps attention on a critical question: Does the item truly assess the knowledge or skill it is supposed to measure?
Reviewers look for subtle cues that could lead students toward the correct response, such as repeated terminology, uneven answer construction, or patterns that allow an answer to stand out. By identifying and revising those details, the team works to keep the item focused on evidence of standards-based learning.
Built-in content without giving up local flexibility
Districts should not have to choose between professionally developed content and local control.
- PowerSchool-provided items can be edited and customized, giving educators a starting point they can adapt to their assessment strategy.
- Districts can use individual items, deploy pre-built assessments, or combine PowerSchool content with locally created resources.
- Performance Matters supports multiple-choice, short-answer, and technology-enhanced items, allowing districts to incorporate a variety of assessment formats.
For additional content needs, PowerBuddy for Assessment can use AI assistance to generate items, passages, and assessments tailored to selected grade levels, standards, and topics. It can also support grading and rubric-based feedback for free-response items.
The result is a flexible content approach: districts can begin with curated resources, customize them for local use, and create additional content when their needs extend beyond the available libraries.
Produce information educators can trust
Assessment items should do three things: measure the intended standards, give students a fair opportunity to demonstrate what they know, and produce information educators can use with confidence. That is why high-quality assessment content is an essential part of an effective assessment strategy.
With PowerSchool, districts can bring together a flexible assessment system, extensive item and assessment libraries, and a deliberate editorial process. This gives educators a stronger foundation for evaluating student learning and taking informed next steps.
We’d love to show you some examples of content, developed by our specialists, and discuss your assessment strategy goals.
