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Formal assessment also includes constructed response items in which students are asked to recall information and create an answer—not just recognize if the answer is correct—so guessing is reduced. Constructed response items can be used to assess a wide variety of kinds of knowledge and two major kinds are discussed: completion or short answer (also called short response) and extended response.
Completion and short answer items can be answered in a word, phrase, number, or symbol. These types of items are essentially the same only varying in whether the problem is presented as a statement or a question (Linn&Miller 2005). For example:
Completion: The first traffic light in the US was invented by…………….
Short Answer: Who invented the first traffic light in the US?
These items are often used in mathematics tests, e.g.
3 + 10 = …………..?
Draw the line of symmetry on the following shape
A major advantage of these items is they that they are easy to construct. However, apart from their use in mathematics they are unsuitable for measuring complex learning outcomes and are often difficult to score. Completion and short answer tests are sometimes called objective tests as the intent is that there is only one correct answer and so there is no variability in scoring but unless the question is phrased very carefully, there are frequently a variety of correct answers. For example, consider the item
Where was President Lincoln born?....................
The teacher may expect the answer “in a log cabin” but other correct answers are also “on Sinking Spring Farm”, “in Hardin County” or “in Kentucky”. Common errors in these items are summarized in [link] .
| Type of item | Common errors | Example |
| Completion and short answer | There is more than one possible answer. | e.g. Where was US President Lincoln born? The answer could be in a log cabin, in Kentucky etc. |
| Too many blanks are in the completion item so it is too difficult or doesn’t make sense. | e.g. In ….. theory, the first stage, ….. . is when infants process through their ……. and ….. ……… | |
| Clues are given by length of blanks in completion items. | e.g. Three states are contiguous to New Hampshire: . ….is to the West, ……is to the East and ………..…. is to the South. | |
| Extended Response | Ambiguous questions | e.g. Was the US Civil War avoidable? Students could interpret this question in a wide variety of ways, perhaps even stating “yes” or “no”. One student may discuss only political causes another moral, political and economic causes. There is no guidance in the question for students. |
| Poor reliability in grading | The teacher does not use a scoring rubric and so is inconsistent in how he scores answers especially unexpected responses, irrelevant information, and grammatical errors. | |
| Perception of student influences grading | By spring semester the teacher has developed expectations of each student’s performance and this influences the grading (numbers can be used instead of names).The test consists of three constructed responses and the teacher grades the three answers on each students’ paper before moving to the next paper. This means that the grading of questions 2 and 3 are influenced by the answers to question 1 (teachers should grade all the 1 st question then the 2 nd etc). | |
| Choices are given on the test and some answers are easier than others. | Testing experts recommend not giving choices in tests because then students are not really taking the same test creating equity problems. |
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