Professor says writing test for selective admissions is being misused - Chalkbeat Colorado

A machine-scored writing exercise introduced this year as part of the admissions process for five of Philadelphia’s top public high schools is being misused, an education professor says.

Joshua Wilson, an associate professor at the University of Delaware who studies automated essay scoring, said the writing tool is meant to identify struggling learners and inform classroom instruction, not make high-stakes decisions about students’ futures.

“No one has done research on whether it can be used to make placement decisions,” Wilson said about the writing tool, MIWrite, which is a product made by Measurement Inc., based in Durham, N.C. Using it this way is a “mistake,” he said.

He is scheduled to speak at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting.

In response to Wilson’s criticism, district spokesperson Monica Lewis issued a statement to Chalkbeat saying that the district had been “assured by the vendor that using this tool to score essays as part of the application process would be appropriate.”

Measurement, Inc. did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

Lewis said that one of the five schools, Parkway Center City Middle College, had for several years been using a computer-graded writing sample for admissions with “positive feedback.”

This year the school district overhauled its selective admissions process in an effort to improve access for traditionally underserved students. Instead of giving individual school leaders final say over who is admitted, all...

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