NAPLAN:
A controversial move towards "robot
marking" of NAPLAN tests has been scrapped, the Education Council has
confirmed.
Key points:
·
"Automated
essay scoring" will not be used for marking of NAPLAN writing scripts
·
The
national assessment authority ACARA had strongly argued for robot marking,
insisting it was as reliable as humans
·
A
prominent US academic had called for a halt to the plans, saying robot marking
would reward "verbose gibberish"
English
tasks were to be marked by computers this year, but the proposal caused
rancour among teachers' unions who launched a campaign against it.
Now, the
Education Council, which is comprised of all state and territory education
ministers, has announced the move towards automated essay scoring will be
halted.
The
decision was made in December but has only just been revealed in a statement
from the council.
"In
December 2017, the Education Council determined that automated essay scoring
will not be used for the marking of NAPLAN writing scripts," said South
Australian Education Minister Susan Close, who is the Education Council's
chair.
"Any
change to this position in the future will be informed by further research into
automated essay scoring, and be made as a decision of the Education
Council."
The
announcement is a blow to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting
Authority (ACARA), which had strongly argued for robot marking, insisting it
was as reliable as humans for narrative and persuasive writings tasks.
The NSW
Teachers Federation last year commissioned a report from a prominent US expert
on automated essay scoring.
Retired
professor Les Perelman said computers would reward "verbose
gibberish" and could not properly assess creativity, poetry, irony or
other more artistic uses of writing.
NSW
Education Minister Rob Stokes last year described automated essay scoring as
"a direct attack on the teaching profession" and warned it had
"no place" in NSW schools.
Before the
Education Council's announcement, ACARA had aimed to have fully automated
marking and testing of NAPLAN English tasks by 2020.
The
scrapping of robot marking comes as schools are transitioning away from
pen-and-paper NAPLAN tests towards online tests.
That
process has been difficult, with many schools lacking the technical infrastructure to
support it.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-29/push-to-have-robots-mark-naplan-tests-scrapped/9370318
