i didn’t do well on an 8 year old’s test

My old roommate Mark used to say:

Any sport that’s not objectively measured shouldn’t be in the olympics. It should be clear cut - faster, stronger, higher.

So what about public schools and grading?

I finished reading Alfie Kohn’s “The Homework Myth” a while ago and he makes a strong case that homework’s value is over inflated, sometimes even damaging to a child’s long term learning.

So I started to poke around a bit.

The public school near our house - the one that Rosie would almost certainly be going to had a bullet item: “Target: EQAO scores at/above Board levels (75%)”.

So what the heck are these EQAO tests?

Well here’s an example:

Try your hand at scoring a student response!

Use the rubric below to score this Reading item from the Junior Division Assessment and then check out the rationale for the correct code.

Sample Question and Answer

Do You Need More Sleep?

Have you ever wanted to stay up all night? It’s not really as much fun as you think, and it’s not good for your mind or body.

If you don’t get enough sleep, you can feel grouchy, and your body might become weak, causing you to become sick. There’s something else, too. Not getting enough sleep also makes it harder to remember things. You may not be able to do your best work at school.

Most people find some things, such as reading or working on math, harder to do when they don’t get enough sleep. For every hour of sleep you miss, it takes more time and energy to solve problems.

Sleep is one of those things every animal needs (like air, water, food and exercise). Some animals, such as dolphins, take very short naps throughout the day. However, humans need to sleep for several hours at a time. It takes about 10 hours of sleep (fewer for adults) to help you feel well the next day.

Getting enough sleep is important, because bedtime is when your body rests its tired muscles, builds up energy and gets itself ready for the next day. It’s also when your brain reviews what you’ve learned, which helps it make sense of the things you have seen, heard and thought about during the day.

Do you think more sleep would help you perform better at school? Explain using information from the selection and your own ideas to support your answer.

EQAO Grade 3

Generic Rubric

Code	Description
10	response does not refer to ideas and information from the reading selection response indicates a significant misunderstanding of the reading selection; ideas and information from the reading selection are inaccurate
10	response does not refer to ideas and information from the reading selection response indicates a significant misunderstanding of the reading selection; ideas and information from the reading selection are inaccurate
20	response addresses only part of the question response is developed with limited support; ideas and information from the reading selection are minimal, vague and/or irrelevant
30	response addresses the complete question response is developed with some accurate, specific and relevant ideas and information from the reading selection; some ideas and information are inaccurate, vague and/or irrelevant
40	response addresses the complete question response is developed with accurate, specific and relevant ideas and information from the reading selection

Actual Score: 30

Rationale: Response indicates an understanding of the effect of having more sleep using some accurate and relevant support (e.g., …grouchy) but does not clearly show the connections (e.g., …better grades).

I guessed a score of 30, mostly because I can’t see the difference between 30 and 40, and I assumed that the kid wasn’t getting perfect. It’s not clear that the response is missing “specific and relevant ideas from the reading selection” because it may be obvious to the student that better grades come from “it takes more time and energy to solve problems”. After all - there’s no other reason to say that the grades were better.

But that’s nitpicking - my main point is really this - testing is hard - whether that’s testing software or kids. If the best we can do is obtain subjectively accurate test scores - we’re not doing anyone a favor. Good students may not score well for no reason. Poor students may score well for no particular reason. Students who fall in the middle learn that it’s a crap shoot how well they’re going to do once they exert a nominal amount of effort. Is that good enough for you?

Never mind that everyone’s favorite economist Steven Levitt has shown that when there are distinct payoffs for higher scores on standardized tests - you can bet that you’ll find teachers and administrators cheating to get those higher scores.

Conclusion? Nothing extraordinary here - just more of the same. Be skeptical. Always be skeptical.