Using a Constructed-Response Instrument to Explore the Effects of Item Position and Item Features on the Assessment of Students’ Written Scientific Explanations

A large body of work has been devoted to reducing assessment biases that distort inferences about students’ science understanding, particularly in multiple-choice instruments (MCI). Constructed-response instruments (CRI), however, have invited much less scrutiny, perhaps because of their reputation for avoiding many of the documented biases of MCIs. In this study we explored whether known biases of MCIs—specifically item sequencing and surface...