NCTE Position Statement on Machine Scoring:

I agree that machine scoring is necessary in some situations, but certainly cannot provide the quality feedback that a person-reader can.  When it comes to Common Core standardized testing, I understand that reading the writing of every 3rd grader, or whatever grade, in the state is a huge task requiring a crew of graders to obtain qualitative data.  Consequently, I'm okay with Common Core testing with a computer reader, especially in the lower grades, where the focus is on spelling, sentence structure, punctuation, and the like.  Sometimes practical concerns must take precedence.

My eldest daughter is a 3rd grader this year and it will be her first year taking standardized tests (PARCC).  So far, she has no evidence of test anxiety and she is fairly computer proficient (the test is entirely computerized), so I'm not terribly worried about her performance.  That said, I can easily see how low-income, students with disabilities, or any number of other social and technological barriers could play a role in student performance on such a test.

I agree with the position statement's assertions though, that using this single test to determine high school graduation, college entrance, or other high-stakes is not an effective way to assess as student's skills.  I love the idea of a portfolio that doesn't take into account a single day in the student's life, but a process of improvement over the course of her education.  

I remember during one of my tests in high school (SAT or the like), I had the most BORING writing prompt ever.  I would wager that this would seriously effect the quality of any student's writing.  I think that it would be far preferable to review a student's portfolio, in which the student MUST have written about SOMETHING that interested her, rather than some artificial writing prompt with limited time to brainstorm and ponder.

Vie, Stephanie. "A Pedagogy of Resistance Toward Plagiarism Detection Technologies." Computers and Composition. 30.1 (2013): 3-15. Print.

This article discusses the reasons that software like Turnitin.com should not be adopted by universities for catching plagiarized material.  For those of us who have never seen a report from this website, here is what it looks like:

Vie argues that more creative writing prompts and more scaffolded assignments would limit the opportunities to plagiarize and that these types of programs place students in a "guilty until proven innocent" position.  Further, Vie suggests that students need to be better educated to think critically about what constitutes plagiarism.  Vie reminds us that plagiarism detection is now a booming business, and operates by maintaing a giant pool of submitted papers as reference points (in itself an ethical dilemma).  Nevertheless, these programs are marketed to schools to assist with lightening teachers' workloads and saving them the trouble of pasting portions of student papers into google.  

Vie references schoolsucks.com as a place where students can download papers.  

1.  I must applaud the developer's entrepreneurship.  

2.  SERIOUSLY?!  How can this be allowed?  How can this not be easily caught?!  I'm actually surprised that there is a site this bold about cheating.

Famous Plagiarists (quality of this source is unknown):

Once upon a time there was a professor at X Regional University, his name was Brian (my husband).  A student turned-in an obviously borrowed essay since none of his previous work was of the same caliber as his final paper.  Brian told the department head, who read it and agreed it was plagiarized.  The department head forwarded it to a professor who was an expert in the field that the paper written about, and the expert agreed it was plagiarism.  What was the final result?  Brian was told to give the student a 0, but was told that it "wasn't worth pursuing further "because the student was about to graduate anyway. HUH?  Yep.  This was NOT a case of accidental plagiarism; this was a stolen paper.  The student later had the audacity to contact Brian and ask why he got such a low grade in the class.  Sheesh!