When In Doubt, Pick C

In Maryland the debate over how best to test kids is touching on an interesting question--can multiple choice questions work? From the Washington Post:

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.

There's the speed argument, but can multiple choice tests still be valid measures of what students know? How do you account for guessing and the old-school Genesis fan who goes with "Abacab" over and over again?

It's a question that's come up here in Washington just recently. In February there was a proposal to scrap the WASL in favor of a multiple-choice assessment; despite some bi-partisan support, it didn't pass. There's been a hearty debate about whether the WASL is that much better than the ITBS that many schools discarded in favor of the mandated state assessment.

To my mind, a written response is always going to show you more about what the kids know than filling in the appropriate bubble will. Even the best constructed multiple choice question will be inferior to an essay question if you want to measure insight and application.

That said, I'm also a big booster of the MAP assessment from the NWEA, because it's sooooo damned easy to administer, you get the results back the second the test is over, growth can be measured in a snap, the ability to rank order and apply percentile rankings is meaningful--the data that my school gets from the MAP is vastly superior to what we get from the WASL, and I'm saying that as the data guy and one of the building test coordinators.

We can't solve this through local control; to be able to compare districts and comply with the demands of NCLB, OSPI has to bigfoot. If you heard tomorrow that Terry Bergeson had seen the light and wanted to switch the WASL to a multiple choice format, what would your reaction be?


For a different take on the Maryland story, try District Administration magazine. Diane Ravitch brings her usual thoughtfulness to the limitations of multiple choice testing here; EdWeek does a great job with her blog, and it's a place well worth checking out often. A research-minded look at how to write good multiple choice questions can be found here.