Maryland Changes Test to all Multiple-Choice

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

As predicted the fixation on high-stakes testing ends up reducing 
"accountability" to psyching out multiple-choice questions, which will, 
in turn, dumb-down teaching and learning.


TO SPEED GRADING, TESTS WILL BE MULTIPLE CHOICE

Washington Post -- September 13, 2007
by Nelson Hernandez and Daniel de Vise

Maryland plans to eliminate written-response questions from its high 
school exit exams to address long-standing complaints about how slowly 
test results are processed, state education officials said yesterday.

Beginning in May 2009, the Maryland school system will phase out "brief 
constructed responses" and "extended constructed responses" -- questions 
requiring a short or long written answer -- from its four tests covering 
algebra, English, biology and government, said Ronald A. Peiffer, the 
state's deputy superintendent for academic policy.

Eliminating those questions will allow the state to process test results 
up to four weeks faster than before, Peiffer said. The timing of the 
change means that the Class of 2009, the first group for which the test 
will count, will still be responsible for composing written answers.

Peiffer said that Nancy S. Grasmick, the state superintendent, "met with 
all 24 local superintendents last Friday, and we have 100 percent 
agreement from them for moving in this direction." Details of the change 
were described in a memo obtained yesterday by The Washington Post.

Montgomery school leaders are "definitely not opposed to this" and have 
supported scaling the test back to a strictly multiple-choice format, 
said Brian Edwards, the county schools spokesman.

The move to a pure multiple-choice format addresses complaints from 
school systems about how long the tests take to be processed. 
Written-response questions take much longer to grade than 
multiple-choice questions because they have to be evaluated by humans, 
not computers. Some jurisdictions did not find out how their students 
had done on the High School Assessments until after the school year had 
begun, making it difficult to home in on students who need extra help to 
pass the tests.

The assessments have been subjected to increased scrutiny from local 
school officials and state lawmakers who are concerned about the state's 
inability to calculate how many students are at risk of not graduating, 
and the possibility that the tests will deprive hundreds or thousands of 
students of diplomas.

In testimony at a public hearing on the exams this week, Stephen 
Bedford, the chief school performance officer in Montgomery County, said 
the lengthy turnaround time in scoring is "too long, making it difficult 
to enroll students in appropriate courses or plan for interventions" for 
those who fail.

Peiffer and Leslie A. Wilson, an assistant state superintendent, said 
the state takes nine weeks to get results to school systems; with the 
change, and a recent switch to a new test provider, that time can be cut 
to three weeks.

"We need that data back as fast as possible," said John E. Deasy, the 
superintendent of the Prince George's County school system.

Making the tests completely multiple-choice could raise questions about 
how useful they are in evaluating mastery of the subjects. But state 
officials said that the exams would remain as challenging and accurate 
as before and that classroom instruction would not change.

"They now have a level of sophistication in the selected-response items 
they didn't have," Peiffer said. "The kinds of things we could only test 
with constructed-response items before now can be done in a valid and 
accurate way with selected-response items in a way that's just as good 
or better."