A system, method, and related techniques are disclosed for scoring user responses to constructed response test items. The system includes a scoring engine for receiving a user response to a test question and evaluating the response against a scoring rubric. The scoring rubric may include a binding stage, an assertion stage, and a scoring stage. Furthermore, the system includes a database for referencing elements used by the scoring engine which may comprise objects, object sets, attributes of objects, and transformations of any elements.