The Purpose of Testing

The Post reports today that Maryland will replace written-response questions with multiple-choice questions on its high school exit exams so they can be graded more quickly. All of the districts want to get their test results back faster than the month or so it currently takes so there's near unanimity for this change among superintendents. And the state's deputy superintendent for academic policy claims that advances in test development means that we can now make multiple choice questions "as good or better" than constructed (written) responses. True that tests are far more advanced and sophisticated than they once were. But even with the best tests, there is still the question of what it is we're trying to measure. I find it hard to believe that there is a multiple choice test that can meaningfully assess a student's writing ability or, in the state's own language, a student's ability to "read, review and respond to texts". In part I'm frustrated because I've spent countless hours at home hearing from my Maryland English teacher husband about the poor quality of students' writing and watching him (and admittedly helping him) review hundreds of "brief constructed responses" or "BCRs" because that's what the state has decided was good practice. So what now? It's good to practice but okay not to master? Are we okay with Maryland high school students knowing the elements of good writing but not knowing how to actually write? I'm not.