Academic Achievement

Item Format

In general, tests use either of two format types, depending on how the student is expected to respond. Selected response items present a (question) stem and a set of possible answers from which a response is chosen. In contrast, constructed response items require the student to provide an answer to a given question or prompt without any suggested responses. In Measurement and Assessment in Teaching, teachers and researchers believe that both types of items can adequately measure the same content; however, information about student knowledge and/or ability resulting from student responses may be different. For example, selected responses may be more appropriate for understanding the factual knowledge from a student on a unit chapter, whereas a constructed response format is better suited for assessing a student's knowledge of and ability to develop an argument in a debate class. To appropriately influence and direct educational decisions, the intended references and uses of the results must be considered prior to test construction and administration.

Using selected and constructed response items, tests can be designed to measure both declarative knowledge and conditional and procedural skills. The format depends on the nature of the decisions that are to be based on the outcomes. Regardless of format choice, the test items must target the ability of the student (group) and provide enough information to discriminate among different performances to make a valid decision.