Sort search results

You can easily change the order of questions on the Search Results page. To sort questions within a column, simply click on the column heading. The blue arrow shows whether the order is ascending or descending.

To change how the questions are sorted by criteria, take the following steps to move column headings:

Choose the Accessible Sort link for a drop-down list of the criteria/column headings and choose the order; or
Place the cursor over the column heading of the criterion you want to move. The cursor will change to the move symbol and the heading box is highlighted in yellow.
Press and hold the cursor and drag it to the desired location until you see orange arrows to the left of the heading you want to replace.

Release the cursor and the page will refresh by sorting the questions according to the new column order.

Note that unless they are next to each other, the column headings will not swap places but simply move the other columns to the right or left. If you want to move the last column to the first and the first to the last, you must move each column to the new position separately.
The sort order you choose will remain throughout the session, even if you use Modify Search to go back to the main questions page and choose new subjects. It will be re-set when you re-open your browser window.

In the example below, the descending order has been changed to ascending for the Year column, and the Difficulty column is about to be moved over the Year column.

close-up view of sample search results showing sorting on question difficulty column.

Additional details about the columns in the chart follows.

Sortable Columns:

Grade (or Age, for long-term trend assessments). Questions shown with more than one grade—for instance, 4(8) or 13(17)—are given in identical format to the grades indicated.
Block, or group of questions that fit into a specified time during administration. Questions in this column were administered together. To keep all questions in a block together, sort by Block and No., because the questions in a particular block were administered during the same time period.
Type. The response types available are MC (multiple choice), CR (constructed response), or ECR (extended constructed response). For CR and ECR, examples of actual student responses will display when you examine a particular question.
Diff. and % Correct. Question difficulty (Easy, Medium, or Hard) is determined by the percentage of students answering at certain levels of correctness during the last administration for that question.

Fixed Columns:

Description. This non-sorting column contains the list of questions. Examine any question by clicking on its title.
In Folder. This column contains boxes to check to select a question for the Print Folder.

View a tutorial lesson on how to sort search results. Alternatively, read the text narration of this lesson.