Assessing the Electronic Assessment Machines

by Patricia Freitag Ericsson
Washington State University

Overview

I don't remember my first encounter with the assessment machines. As much as I've thought about them, researched them, and talked and written about them, I'm surprised that I can't recall that first meeting. Seems like it should be as tattooed on my memory like a “first date” often is—after all, I've been courting and living with these assessment machines for quite a few years. Despite my inability to tell an entertaining and intriguing story about my first experience with assessment machines, the topic should engage us.

Why should these machines engage us? The sheer numbers might be a good start and those numbers are pretty amazing. In Oct. 2004, Suzanne Murphy of ACCUPLACER informed me that although she couldn't disclose which college and universities are using it, “ I can tell you there are over 900 colleges that use ACCUPLACER in all of the US states as well as a number of Canadian colleges and other colleges around the world. Last year over 5,000,000 tests were administered.

Elisabeth Bass, a college teacher in New Jersey , told me that “virtually every community college in the state has moved to ACCUPLACER,” and she wasn't exaggerating; her claim is supported by evidence. In a 2004 study of the placement practices in 24 New Jersey colleges and universities, Wanda G. Kosinski found that 70% of the institutions used computerized assessment for placement and that over 62% of those institutions were using ACCUPLACER.

Several colleges and universities have started to use Pearson Education Technologies product, the Intelligent Essay Assessor (IEA) in content area courses. The Pearson website lists Florida Gulf Coast University , Yale, and the University of Colorado as partners. In addition, Holt, Rinehart and Winston has packaged the IEA technology in their Preparation for Standardized Writing Test materials and Prentice Hall uses IEA in their “Using the IEA to Improve Textbook Learning” unit.

These machines have made their way into schools at all levels. According to the Vantage Learning website, their assessment machine known as IntelliMetric “offers several solutions to aid educators in meeting NCLB [No Child Left Behind] requirements, from MY Access!, our online writing environment that has been proven to increase students' writing proficiency, to our customized solutions that are used in statewide assessments in the states of Texas, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Virginia.” Their claims are accompanied by glowing praise from administrators and even from some teachers.

Criterion, the scoring machine developed and marketed by ETS, had over 300,000 student using it as of November 2004 (personal email from Alisa Strauss of ETS).

These assessment machines are selling like hotcakes, and you're likely to meet up with them soon—if you already haven't. So whether you're ready for this first encounter or not, you're likely to experience it soon. How do we get ready to encounter these machines? For those of us who've already met up with them, are there helpful ways to think about them? How do they fit or misfit with what we understand about teaching and learning, especially what we understand about how students learn to write? I am sure I can't provide answers to all of these questions and the many more this discussion will produce. Perhaps together we can make some headway.

The Basics and The Machines

The Questions Writing Teachers Need to Ask

Teaching Composition