Testing: Mixed Reactions To Robot Reader Study

There are robots (computers, really) reading and scoring student essays on standardized tests.  Here's a roundup of stories about a new study:

Computer scoring of essays shows promise, analysis shows USAT: Funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the analysis was part of an ongoing competition, an X-Prize of sorts, that Hewlett is sponsoring to push the field forward.

Robo-readers - the new teachers' helper in the U.S. Reuters:  Today, computers are used to grade essays on South Dakota's student writing assessments and a handful of other high-stakes exams, including the TOEFL test of English fluency, taken by foreign students. 

Robo-Readers Used to Grade Test Essays NYT (Winerip): The automated reader can be easily gamed, is vulnerable to test prep, sets a very limited and rigid standard for what good writing is, and will pressure teachers to dumb down writing instruction.

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Comments

[Sarah]

I am an advocate of technology, no question. But as a passionate writer, this idea disgusts me. There is something immeasurable, impossible to quantify, in writing, and that is emotional impact. In order to simulate its effect on a reader, engineers would have to perfect artificial intelligence. And there’s simply no evidence to suggest they’ve even come close.