Re: NY Regent's Exam

[Judi Hirsch <judih@OUSD.K12.CA.US>]

I remember when our school was applying to the Bay Area School Reform
Collaborative a few years ago--we had to go through a lengthy process which
included being trained ourselves in portfolio rubrics. At one of the
meetings, our school's portfolio was used as a sample portfolio, one to read
thru' and score in order to learn the scoring process.
    Well,our school is an Art School, and we did our portfolio in a very
creative way--by the way, the only "rule" we had to follow while addressing
the five criteria, was that it could be read in an hour.
    The result of the practice reading? We got 1's (=F)  and we got 4's
(=A)--so much for people being on the same page!
    Judi (post #1)

----- Original Message -----
From: John Lawhead <theyreback@JUNO.COM>
To: <ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, November 05, 1999 5:28 PM
Subject: Re: NY Regent's Exam


> Hi everybody,
>
> MacUser <5alive writes:
> >I know these tests go though more than one reader, but the readers are
> usually >"normed" and trained to expect a certain "level" of competency
> which is very >arbitrary.
>
> This is an insightful observation, coming from someone who hasn't scored
> an English Regents exam.  The rubric may be "fabulous" (??!!) but its
> words mean different things for different scorers.  In practice it's a
> rather messy affair.
>
> In NYC English teachers have had to attend numerous workshops where they
> look at sample test responses and learn how they were scored.  I think
> the coaching reflects the fact that the plain meaning of the rubric is
> insufficient.
>
> On a couple of occasions at these workshops I listened to administrators
> arguing that a writing sample had "implicit" ideas that the teachers
> missed in their practice scoring.  Both times there were blatant signs in
> the writing that the student didn't understand the task or the reading.
> The kids were out of their depth and the teachers were being asked to
> comb through incoherent writing samples for words or phrases that could
> be interpreted as points or ideas.  Obviously some people are better at
> this than others.
>
> IMO, it's highly arbitrary.  I'd love to know if there's been any
> independent study of the new English Regents with regard to interrater
> reliability.
>
> John Lawhead
> ESL teacher
> Bushwick High School
> 718-381-7100 ext. 409
> theyreback@juno.com
>
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