Many textbooks in educational measurement and classroom assessment have chapters devoted to specific item formats. There may beattempts to relate one item format to another, but the chapters and item for mats are largely seem as distinct entities with only loose and uncertainconnections. This paper synthesizes these discussions. An item formatcontinuum is suggested. This continuum closely resembles the work of T.Rocklin (1992), R. Bennett (1993), and R. Snow (1993). There are seven broadcategories of test items:(1) dialogue-oral;(2) performance;(3) project;(4) essay;(5) short answer;(6) multiple choice; and (7) true-false. Testvalidity has not been overlooked as a characteristic, but is simply notrelated to this continuum. Selecting an appropriate item format for a validassessment of an instructional unit requires that the teacher match his orher objectives with item format characteristics. An appendix discusses thecharacteristics of the item formats in the continuum. (Contains 22references.)(SLD)