The writing skills item bank contain 82 objectives each represented by two writing prompts with criteria for holistic scoring. Grade levels covered are one through eight. The objectives deal with aspects of composition such as grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, logic, and creativity. The "items" are writing prompts to which the student responds with a sentence or as much as several paragraphs of original writing. The scoring criteria are based on a primary trait analysis of the required writing skills. The prompts have been tested on over 3,000 elementary students and then calibrated according to the Rasch logistic model. The bank can serve as a starting point for developing tests of writing skill achievement tailored to the local district curriculum. Such tests can be used for district program evaluation, student diagnosis, competency testing, and formative or mastery testing. (Author)