This study aimed to analyze Korean Language Arts items in the first screening stage of the Elementary Teacher
Employment Exam and provide suggestions for improving the items. A total of 15 unit items between academic years of 2013
and 2017 were analyzed with a particular focus on the format and content of the items. The results showed that Korean Language
Arts items showed a unique format that consisted of one educational situation and its relevant educational information
such as the lesson objective, teaching plan, contents, reading materials, and student responses. Several points of improvement
for the content were also found as in the skewed distribution of the items. The questions, for instance, privileged subject content
knowledge as well as the reading and literature domain, while items that test the examinees’ pedagogical knowledge, student
knowledge, familiarity with lower grade level students, and expertise in assessment were relatively scarce. Also, not only
were the questions consisted of low difficulty item but they were also often presented in a decontextualized form. Suggestions
for improvement based on the analytic findings are discussed at the end.