In the Unreal World of Education

are a couple of stories, one which is outrageous while others have some good news:

Pearson is going to have automated scoring of ESSAY questions. Now try and let this idea sink in for a minute. Teachers are going to be "evaluated" in large part due to questions on tests and essay tests that are actually highly subjective to begin with are going to be scored by machines? Multiple choice is bad enough, but this is unbelievable:

Given my experience in the duplicitous world of standardized test-scoring, I couldn't help but have my doubts about the statistics provided in support of the automated essay scoring study -- and, unfortunately, that study lost me with its title alone. "Contrasting State-of-the-Art Automated Scoring of Essays: Analysis," it is named, with p. 5 reemphasizing exactly what the study is supposed to be focused on: "Phase I examines the machine scoring capabilities for extended-response essays." A quick perusal of Table 3, however, on page 33, suggests that the "essays" scored in the study are barely essays at all: "Essays" tested in five of the eight sets of student responses averaged only about a hundred and fifty words.

Although Mr. Shermis refuted that claim during a radio interview by stating that, overall, the average length of the study's student responses was about 250 words, the numbers on Table 3 reveal something else. While Test Sets 1 and 2 included essays averaging 360-370 words and Test Set 8 included essays averaging 640, the mean length of the remaining five Test Sets were ridiculously short:

Test Set 3--113 words
Test Set 4--98 words
Test Set 5--127 words
Test Set 6--152 words
Test Set 7--173 words

And so forth.
_____

Parents and others should have been out in the streets to begin with protesting standardized testing.

Parents frustrated by the system say they're not against all standardized tests but resent the many hours their kids spend filling in multiple-choice bubbles and the wide-ranging consequence that poor scores carry. They say the testing regime piles stress on children and wastes classroom time. In elementary schools, they protest that a laser focus on the subjects tested, mostly math and reading, crowds out science, social studies and the arts. In high schools, they're fighting standardized exams that can determine a student's course grade in subjects from geometry to world history.

"I see frustration and bitterness among parents growing by leaps and bounds," said Leonie Haimson, a mother who runs Class Size Matters, an advocacy group in New York City that pushes for reduced testing and smaller class sizes. "What parents are saying is, 'Enough is enough.'"

Crowding out the arts, social studies, and science IS the point. Employers don't need well-rounded, informed citizens but compliant drones working for nothing.

The arts, social studies, and science are for the rich in the private schools.
_____

At least one teachers' union is actually ACTING like a union instead of a subsidiary of the school district.

The administrators in Chicago were acting so damned cocky like the union wouldn't have enough members to vote for a strike. Well, the teachers showed THEM.