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Formative Constructed Response Items

MDTP Formative Constructed Response Items (FCRIs) are aligned to specific problems found on MDTP diagnostic tests by topic.  They are designed to provide a short and focused post-intervention assessment of students' understanding of a key mathematical topic or concept and should be administered to students after they have taken an MDTP Assessment of Preparedness or Readiness Test and have engaged in post-testing instructional intervention.  

MDTP FCRIs are currently in field-test versions - please see information below to assist MDTP in the field-testing process.

Intended Use

MDTP FCRIs are intended for use in an educational setting where an instructor is actively proctoring student engagement.  Each prompt is designed to take students between 5-15 minutes as a formative assessment to check student understanding or to reengage in previously learned content.


Three components make up each FCRI:

  1. The Problem Statement 
  2. The Essence Statement describes the nature of the solutions to the problem
  3. The Rubric provides check points for formative assessment

Field-test Data Request

MDTP needs help in receiving data from educators who have administered these assessments.  Teacher feedback helps us to learn about the usefulness of the item and the scoring rubrics to score student papers.  

Please follow the steps below to provide feedback to MDTP after administering and scoring field-test items. 

  1. Hand out the Prompt of the Formative Constructed Response Item to students and actively monitor the learning environment (do not send field-test prompts home for independent work). 
  2. Provide students enough time to completely respond to the prompt during instructional time. Students should write their names at the top of the prompt and clearly show their work. 
  3. Read the Essence Statement, the General Rubric, and the Specific Rubric for the item before scoring.  
  4. Score the student responses yourself or with another teacher who is participating in the field test using the item’s Specific Rubric and General Rubric.  The field-test data help MDTP to evaluate the Prompt and the Specific Rubric; therefore, it is essential that you use the Specific Rubric to inform your scoring. 
  5. Do not write comments on the papers that you will send to MDTP. You may make comments on the original students’ papers that you return to your students.
  6. Make copies of students’ scored papers to return by mail or scan scored papers to send by email.  
  7. Complete the survey after scoring to provide feedback about the quality and usefulness of the item. 
  8. Contact MDTP to request a postage-paid envelope to send your results or send one class set of scanned scored student papers and email to MDTP at mdtp@ucsd.edu

MDTP thanks you for your willingness to help in the field-testing effort.


Request Access

Request access to MDTP Formative Constructed Response Items (in field-test versions) below, and a MDTP staff member will contact you directly with access (for verified math educators from California schools only).

Open Response Item Order Form