Re: rock and hard place

[csjhs@eiu.edu (Jeanne H. Simpson)]

Scott

THere really are two issues involved with these tests, not just the matter
of how to administer...something.  First, those of us who have spoken out
against the tests, at least myself, have encountered problems because the
tests are used for purposes that don't match what the tests actually tell
us. Here, passing the test is a graduation requirement. It is a hoop
students must jumpt through.  As an assessment tool, it is worthless. The
students who fail it are the ones you'd expect to fail it--e.g. those who
put it off until the last possible moment and thus have the longest time
span between taking a writing course and taking the test. As a means of
demonstrating to a squinty-eyed legislature and higher education board
that we have "standards" it works just fine.  

If we used it as an assessment tool, it would have to be reconfigured a
bit. But it could work. The problem is that we have never successfully
separated its assessment purposes from an evaluation/gatekeeping purpose.
Assessment is defined as measuring to find out if you are doing what you
say/think you are doing. And its purpose is to help improve your ability
to do whatever it is you want to do.  Assessment of student writing is
intended to help us improve teaching and learning.  But too often, the
result is that students are punished for not learning without any
opportunity to fix theproblem or only a nod at it.  

So, the real concern I have is not the how but the why of such an
endeavor, that everyone begin with a clear understanding that a good
assessment process is used to improve teachng and learning and is NOT used
to punish anyone, not teachers and not students. It should answer the
questions of what works and what should be done differently.  A sample
essay can tell you some things tht can help assessment. Especially if the
essay prompts bear some sort of relationship to the content of the
curriculum, if they ask students to do things they should have learned how
to do, and if the scoring of the results is based on evidence of students
having learned those specific things.  It takes training and it takes
anchoring to get scorers to do that consistently.  The problem we have
here, among others, is that the prompts have no particular connection to
our curriculum.  And the emphasis is often on finer points of usage. I
won't waste your time with horror stories.  I just want to emphasize that
the "easier" method of scoring timed essays still requires more faculty
commitment and time--provided everyone agrees to do it right rather than
to do it expediently--than one might expect.

Jeanne Simpson
csjhs@eiu.edu