Essay Questions

The original version of each question is followed by the problems with it and a possible corrected version. Note that there are many ways in which each question might be corrected. The corrections here are not necessarily the best or most creative. See what you can come up with!

1. How do you feel about the career ladder system currently used in Utah’s public schools?

Problems:

1. The scope is not limited.

2. Since the question asks students to express an opinion, there is no way to determine the merit of students' responses.

Possible Correction:

1. (10 pts., 20 min.) The career ladder system currently used in Utah's public schools is a matter of serious debate. Decide whether you oppose or support the system. Use at least three arguments from the side that you choose to write a persuasive essay.

2. List the five ways of estimating the internal consistency reliability of a test.

Problems:

1. If you want them to simply recite or recognize the five methods, an essay is not the appropriate measure. Essays should be used for higher level thinking tasks.

Possible Correction:

2. (10 pts., 15 min.) A middle school teacher has just implemented an assessment that is intended to determine the extent to which students have test anxiety. However, the teacher is not sure how reliable the items in the assessment are. Identify the statistical measure this teacher might use to answer her question. Identify one method used to compute this measure and describe the procedure the teacher would go through to use it.

The next step is to practice writing your own essay question. Continue with the subject matter you chose earlier. What objective might be conducive to an essay item? Create one essay question on that content. Compare your item with the guidelines to make sure that you have created a quality question.

When you have finished writing your essay question, click Next below to learn about creating context-dependent item sets.