Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2005 > August > 07 > Entry
My purple imaginary friend
Computer scoring of student essays is the future of standardized testing. Human scoring is too expensive to sustain as the federal government and the states increasingly demand more student testing. Indiana already is experimenting with computer essay scoring for its state tests.
How reliable is the computer? Testing proponents say very reliable. I decided to put one of these scoring programs to the test last year in a series called “Flunking the Test,” which earned my colleague Mark Fisher and I the National Headliner Award for education reporting.
I wrote an essay filled with nonsense — a purple imaginary friend, beings from outer space, etc. — but containing just enough of the right vocabulary words and other attributes the computer looks for to earn a top score. Another essay I wrote trying to get a top score was graded lower.
Take a look and see for yourself how the computer did.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Flunking the Test, My Favorite Posts, Testing
Comments
By rider in the back
August 11, 2005 2:31 AM | Link to this
This is a great ide to give people mroe infor about what is goign on in education that doesn’t make it into the paper. Keep up the good work!By Val Carroll
August 10, 2005 11:26 PM | Link to this
There is a similiar problem with human graders being consistent but at least they would catch the nonsense sentences. There also is the issue of what is good writing. The standards keep changing at least as far as the schools go.By JB
August 7, 2005 8:10 PM | Link to this
You write “which earned my colleague Mark Fisher and I the National Headliner Award for education reporting.” Correct is “which earned my colleague Mark Fisher and me the National Headliner Award for education reporting.”