CHAPTER 11
Essay Assessment Tasks
ITEMS
1. Which of the following formats best assesses higher-order thinking processes students use to
solve problems?
(a) Context-dependent multiple-choice items
(b) Essay items
(c) True-false items
2. What type of essay item assesses students’ ability to select relevant information and organize
their ideas?
(a) Completion response essay
(b) Extended response essay
(c) Performance essay
(d) Restricted response essay
3. Restricted response essay items can be used to assess only recall and comprehension of factual
information.
(a) True
(b) False
4. Two essay items, one a restricted response type and the other the extended response type, are
used to assess a group of students on the same content. Which type is likely to yield the more
reliably scored results and why ?
(a) The extended response type, because it covers more ground than the restricted response
type.
(b) The extended response type, because students have more freedom to express their ideas
than with the restricted response type.
(c) The restricted response type, because it is more focused than the extended response type.
(d) The restricted response type, because the students’ answers are shorter.
5. The validity of the results from a restricted response essay item will tend to be lower than those
from an extended response essay item.
(a) True
(b) False
6. A social studies teacher wants to assess students’ knowledge of countries’ capital cities. Which
item format is the best for this purpose?
(a) Extended response items
(b) Restricted response items
(c) Matching items
(d) Multiple-choice items.
7. Which type of item is best to use when assessing recall of factual information?
(a) Context-dependent items
(b) Essay items
(c) Multiple-choice items
(d) Fill-in-the-blank items
8. A teacher who wants to assess students’ general writing skills should use extended response
writing prompts rather than restricted response writing prompts.
(a) True
(b) False
9. What is a major disadvantage of using extended response essay items in the classroom?
(a) Items are difficult to craft
(b) Scoring is inconsistent
(c) Results are difficult to interpret
10. What guides students most in adopting study strategies when preparing for essay or objective
tests?
(a) Item format
(b) Content to be covered
(c) Thinking skills to be covered
11. Students are likely to study specific details when preparing for an essay test if they know the
teacher will require knowing them.
(a) True
(b) False
12. Which of the following learning objectives can be assessed more appropriately using objective
items rather than essay items?
(a) Understanding the civic responsibilities of a citizen.
(b) Why some bills take a long time to be passed in the legislature.
(c) Evaluating the first 100 days of a president in office.
13. What is the main effect of rater drift in scoring essays?
(a) It improves scoring standards with time.
(b) It ensures ratings are closer to each other.
(c) It increases inconsistency in the ratings.
14. How can carry-over effects best be minimized in scoring essays?
(a) Score all essay questions of one student, in the order they appear on the test, before moving
on to the next student.
(b) Score all essay questions of one student, in a random order, before moving on to the next
student.
(c) Score the same essay for all students before moving on to the next essay.
15. Which of the following factors is MOST likely to raise the reliability of students’ essay scores in
an exam?
(a) Halo effect
(b) Carry-over effect
(c) Rater drift
(d) Use of a set of rubrics
16. Which of the following would most likely ensure that an essay test emphasizes the proper
learning objectives?
(a) Compare the content with the past items you have used
(b) Ask a colleague to review the items in light of the curriculum
(c) Avoid using words that can cause ambiguity in the items.
17. For what level students would extended response essay items be most problematic?
(a) Elementary students
(b) Middle school students
(c) Senior high students
(d) College students
18. Why are optional questions in summative essay tests undesirable?
(a) Freedom to choose is an inappropriate assessment goal.
(b) The tests are too easy for students.
(c) Students are assessed in noncomparable ways.
19. Suppose correctness of spelling is not part of the learning objective being assessed with an essay
test. How should spelling be handled when scoring the essays?
(a) Let spelling correctness influence the students’ scores because other learning objectives
require the ability to spell correctly.
(b) Score spelling separately but give it a weight of zero in the students’ total score.
(c) Ignore spelling as best you can while scoring the relevant factors.
20. Which of the following essay-scoring factors is LEAST likely to lower the validity of social
studies test scores?
(a) Sentence structure
(b) Handwriting
(c) Grammar
(d) Quality of the ideas
21. Which of the following are you trying to minimize when you cover up students’ names before you
score their essays?
(a) Carry-over effect
(b) Halo effect
(c) Rater drift
22. For a meaningful feedback to students on their essays, the teacher should
(a) comment on every error made by the student.
(b) comment on only a few errors that are relevant for subsequent work.
(c) ignore all errors and make only positive comments.
23. Which of the following characteristics should be possessed by a good analytic scoring rubric for
writing skills?
(a) It should be focused on one specific task that involves writing.
(b) It should reflect the teacher’s personal writing style.
(c) It should be easy to teach to students.
24. Which of the following is it LEAST important for you to specify in an essay item intended to
assess students’ ability to evaluate a debate in which the debaters express their opinions?
(a) The side you expect students to take in the debate.
(b) How long you expect the students’ essays to be.
(c) The amount of information students are expected to draw on in their response.
(d) The criteria you will use in evaluating their essays.
25. When you construct an analytic scoring rubric for essay-type items, you should specify
(a) the major elements that a high-quality answer will include
(b) the number of points each element is worth
(c) the number of points earned for elements that are partially present in an answer
(d) all of the above
(e) (a) and (b) only
26. Giving feedback in the form of a general letter grade on assessments of student writing is an
example of integrating assessment and instruction.
(a) True
(b) False
Items 27 through 29 refer to the following masterlist of options:
(a) Conventions
(b) Ideas
(c) Organization
(d) Word Choice
27. On which trait should you focus your assessment at the prewriting stage of the writing process?
28. On which trait should you focus your assessment at the revision stage of the writing process?
29. On which trait should you focus your assessment at the editing stage of the writing process?
30. For instructional purposes, it is best if teachers use
(a) a single set of traits to describe good writing across many content areas and audiences.
(b) several sets of traits that describe the characteristics of good writing in specific
disciplines.
(c) a unique set of writing traits specific to each different writing task.
31. The best way to evaluate a student’s writing skill is to mark grammar and punctuation
(conventions) and penmanship (presentation) on the students’ first drafts.
(a) True
(b) False
32. What does the trait voice mean in the context of writing assessment?
(a) The degree to which students write lyrically.
(b) The way the writing flows logically.
(c) Whether the writing contains colorful and active words.
(d) How well the writing shows the personality of the writer.
33. The best way to use writing standards and rubrics in the classroom to assess students is to use
them primarily as summative evaluation tools.
(a) True
(b) False
34. When teaching students to write, it is entirely appropriate to use only the ideas and organization
rubrics to evaluate students’ first drafts.
(a) True
(b) False
35. Which of the following is an example of a narrative writing prompt?
(a) Write about the funniest thing that happened to you last week.
(b) Write about how to grow your favorite flower.
(c) Write about what it would be like to be a fish.
(d) Write about why homework is a very good thing.
36. Which of the following is NOT a way that technology has changed writing assessment?
(a) Word processing makes it easy to edit written work.
(b) Student written reports can include multimedia.
(c) Content understanding is no longer as important.
(d) Scoring can be automated.
37. The criteria for writing good reports are easily generalized to become criteria for constructing
good multimedia reports.
(a) True
(b) False
CHAPTER 11 Answers and Classification of Items