What do standardized writing assessments tell us?Assessing writing through standardized tests affirms our beliefs that complex writing skills are an important.
But what do those scores tell us? What are some of the issues with these standardized assessments? How could they be better? Have a browse through this New York Times Debate on the question: Can Writing on a College Entrance Exam Be Properly Assessed? Respond in the comments with your thoughts--what resonates or surprises you in these perspectives? What do you think of standardized writing assessments? What is critical to making them maximally effective?
3 Comments
Jenna Sheeran
1/23/2017 08:00:47 am
I think that standardized tests are a huge problem in our schooling system, specifically because they promote skill-and-drill teaching and are not challenging students to think beyond formulaic memorization and regurgitation. I would say that the same applies to writing. Writing is such a complex activity that I think it is foolish to believe that a computer generated system, or even actual readers who are giving a minute or two to each paper, can accurately assign a score to student writing. In the debate, Claire Needell brings up a good point that the way the scoring mechanism is designed doesn't accurately grade the whole of the paper. For example, a student may receive an extra point for using unusual words. However, this point may not reflect that the student forced these words in without them really making sense in context. So, when talking about scores that are given to writing in standardized tests, it is important to remember that these scores usually tell us how well a student has learned a set of rules or a formula rather than how well they can actually write.
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Maci Catoe
1/27/2017 12:35:38 pm
I really do not like standardized tests to begin with, and so I especially do not like the writing portion of the SAT and ACT (or any other standardized assessment). I don’t think that you can measure a student’s ability to succeed or “how smart they are.” Then when you factor in the time limitations, you can see how ridiculous the whole idea is! No student can be expected to write an essay in 30 minutes—not one that will get them a high score, at least. The graders of the tests are looking for things that simply cannot be done in a set amount of time under the intense pressure that these students are being held under. I was surprised to read about the different perspectives of the writing portion on standardized tests! I find it hard to believe that people actually think that you can measure a student’s ability to write well through testing them. These people advocate for standardized tests and believe that they are a great indicator of what kind of writer a given student is. I think that it is important to share opinions on things like this because it gets the conversation going and change put into place! I think that if there must be a writing portion on standardized tests, then there should be an open prompt and no time limit. These are both things that would be hard to implement given that there has to be a way to grade the essay. This topic is incredibly important and really should be discussed more often among educators who can speak up and do what is best for the students.
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Madeline Binney
2/25/2017 12:08:00 pm
The writing sections of standardized tests simply assesses whether or not the student is able to remember a process and put the most basic effort into filling out the missing pieces. While it is important to focus on teaching students to write, I do not think there should be an essay portion of these tests. Clark argues that the students who do well are simply the students who, through expensive test-prep, “learned the rules of the game”. Rather than working through the intricacies of writing, revising, and receiving critique from their peers, students must churn out essays with little thought to the quality of the writing. It would be better to have students focus on essay writing in class, but not the process of writing for an exam during which they only have an hour an hour to write a good essay. The emphasis should be put on what is actually good writing, not who can include the elements the scorers are looking for. Standardized testing is not bad, however. It creates a common goal for all students to focus on and makes it easier for teachers to instruct their students on what they are expecting from them. This does not mean that it should be the basis for good writing. Ellis describes his son’s experience with an online essay grading site; he discovers that the more the student writes, the higher the grade. Similarly, this is not a bad idea as it encourages the students to think more about the topic and write more, but it misses the personalization required in writing. It misses the human connection that makes writing so special and, while it can be a helpful source of practice for the young writers as they grow in their abilities to write, it should not be given too much consideration as an accurate representation of the student’s level of writing.
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