Vermont has problems with scoring portfolios Date sent: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 15:28:13 EST Send reply to: core-net@TUCC6.TUCC.Trinity.Edu From: Dave TNCLE To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Portfolio Assessments Originally to: CESNEWS@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU, core-net@TUCC6.TUCC.Trinity.Edu The following is from "Teacher Magazine" at EducationWeek Online, http://www.edweek.org/tm/current/06berger.h09 Great column by a guy who is described as follows: *** Peter N. Berger is a middle school English teacher living in Mount Holly, Vermont. He is the author of Poor Elijah's Almanack," a newspaper column on education and social issues. *** Here's part of the column: Suppose you're trying to rate the details in a piece of writing. If you think the details are "explicit," you score it Extensively. If they're only "elaborated," of course, then you just give it a Frequently. Rating an essay's organization requires that you distinguish between problems that "affect unity or coherence"—these rate a Sometimes—and those that "make writing difficult to follow"—a Rarely. Scoring the voice used in writing is even easier. All you have to do is detect the difference between a "distinctive" tone, an "effective" tone, an "attempt" at an "appropriate" tone, and an "appropriate" tone that's "not evident." Next you can decide if the piece contains errors that "may distract the reader" or errors that "interfere with understanding." This is "objective"? By the way, portfolio backers promote all this on the grounds that parents like the idea of clearly defined standards. Unfortunately, most teachers—and most regular people—have a hard time deciding with statistical reliability whether they're being "distracted" or whether their understanding is being "interfered" with. In order to "calibrate" their judgment with that of the "experts," teachers score sets of writing samples called benchmarks. Inconveniently, Vermont teachers statewide traditionally disagree with experts' benchmark scores more often than they agree with them. Even the "experts" commonly disagree with each other. Which scores are the right scores? You tell me. Date sent: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 13:13:47 -0800 Send reply to: core-net@TUCC6.TUCC.Trinity.Edu From: Don Crawford To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: Portfolio Assessments Originally to: core-net@TUCC6.TUCC.Trinity.Edu >This is "objective"? > >By the way, portfolio backers promote all this on the grounds that parents >like the idea of clearly defined standards. Unfortunately, most teachersóand >most regular peopleóhave a hard time deciding with statistical reliability >whether they're being "distracted" or whether their understanding is being >"interfered" with. > >In order to "calibrate" their judgment with that of the "experts," teachers >score sets of writing samples called benchmarks. Inconveniently, Vermont >teachers statewide traditionally disagree with experts' benchmark scores more >often than they agree with them. Even the "experts" commonly disagree with >each other. Which scores are the right scores? You tell me. One of the sad aspects of the current situation in education is that common sense responses to the latest round of educational innovations are no longer accepted in public education circles. Coming from California as I do I began experiencing this "you must comply" mentality when I went back to teaching in 1990. I continue to believe the most potent metaphor for what is currently going on in public education is the fable, "The Emperor's New Clothes." As an introduction to the latest innovations the promoters often tell new learners that these valuable and effective ideas are opposed by individuals who are not perceptive enough to understand them. Therefore all who oppose the new and innovative ideas are branded as "backwards" or lacking in perception or "old-fashioned" by virtue of their very opposition! That is precisely the basis for hoax of "The Emperor's New Clothes." ****************** Don Crawford, Ph.D. donc@wce.wwu.edu (360) 650-7443 Fax: 650-7516 Western Washington Univ. Spec. Ed.-Mailstop 9090 Bellingham, WA 98225-9090 I am responsible for the content of this message, which does not in any way reflect the position or policy of Western Washington University. ****************** The essence of individualism derives not from accumulating idiosyncratic affectations, but from stripping those affectations away.