I had the opportunity to chat with Carol Jago, past NCTE president and PARCC and NAEP member, last week over lunch. She’s sitting on the committee that’s currently figuring out what the yearly Common Core test will look like. As far as I can recall -- and I should say that there was a glass of wine or two involved over lunch -- there will be two tests: one at the end of the year (May/June) that will feel like an AP Language multiple-choice passage analysis test with a focus on challenging texts – and the examples she gave really were challenging. This one on computer, probably computer adaptive. Another test earlier in the spring (April) will be an "integrated reading and writing task," a writing test that asks kids to create an argument after reading multiple texts – again, it sounded like the “synthesis question” on the AP Language test. This essay test will likely be graded – at least partially – by computers. Again, she offered some pretty interesting examples that involve a range of text types, even paintings.
As far as I’m concerned all this is good news, a good focus on reading challenging texts, argument, analysis, and synthesis. OK… I’m a little concerned with the computer graded essays! But right now, with a couple pounds of essays to grade this weekend, I'm willing to see what those computers can do to provide feedback about things like focus, development, and organization.
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