Kill The Writing Portfolio

Now that there's finally some serious discussion in Frankfort about refining CATS testing, it's time to get rid of the writing portfolio, at least as applied in elementary and middle school.

I've watched my three boys suffer through the writing portfolio required in fourth grade. It is a waste of time. It assesses nothing. It is extremely stressful for the teacher, which the students then internalize.

The writing portfolio is centered on the concept of "peer reviews." That's right, fourth graders edit the other fourth graders. This is known as the blind leading the blind. The teacher is not allowed to edit the student's work, and the portfolios stay at school. So there is little opportunity for the student to receive meaningful feedback from an adult on his writing.

It's all well and good to teach students to revise and reflect. However, spending an entire year revising and reflecting on three pieces of writing is lunacy. These are short stories and feature articles, not dissertations.

Students would be better off writing multiple pieces on a shorter turnaround throughout the the year. That would better approximate the skills they will need in the workforce. It also would reduce the stress on teachers and students if everything didn't hang on three pieces of writing. Students will learn to analyze, write and revise by repeating the exercise on a variety of topics -- not by prolonging the process to the point of torturing all involved.

Students perform better when they enjoy what they are learning and feel confident that their skills are improving. The writing portfolio makes the act of writing seem terrifying and overwhelming.

In addition, the designation of fourth grade as a portfolio year (while not assessing math in fourth grade) necessarily means that math gets little teaching time. That's the unintended consequence of the writing portfolio. The next year, fifth grade teachers are forced to play catch up to remind the students of math skills that have laid dormant during portfolio year. Students should be immersed in math and writing every year.

Students assume that their portfolios are sent off to the Wizard of Frankfort for evaluation. Not so. At the end of the year, the portfolio is scored by teachers within the same school, which certainly puts them in an awkward position. Moreover, after a year of "peer review" it's hard to know what the score really measures.

In contrast, the "on demand" portion of the CATS test (essentially an essay) assesses only what an individual student wrote unassisted. That's a meaningful gauge of a student's writing ability. It also provides ample incentive for teachers to devote the instructional time to the mechanics of good writing.

Those (few) teachers who like the portfolio should be allowed to continue teaching it, but it should not be mandated.

The Enemy of the Good

CATS or ACTs? That is a perplexing question for study in Frankfort, and it involves more than simply rearranging the letters.

Yesterday the Senate approved "a controversial bill" (as the Courier-Journal calls it) to replace CATS -- the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System, used for student testing only in Kentucky -- with national testing developed by ACT Inc. Many Democrats are against the bill, but we can think of no good reason why they should be.

It should not be controversial that national testing is the best way to assess the performance of Kentucky students in relation to their counterparts in other states. It allows for the proverbial apples-to-apples comparison.

Moreover, anyone who has suffered through the Word versus Word Perfect debate knows the rebuttal to the argument made by proponents of CATS, who claim it is a better testing method than ACT. We all know that Word Perfect is better than Word, but because Microsoft did a better job of marketing to (or monopolizing, some one say) the market, most businesses today use Word instead of Word Perfect. It allows for compatibility, which is a form of goodness, a greater virtue than perfection.

So the answer to the question posed above is this: It doesn't matter whether CATS is better than ACT, or vice versa. ACT is the national standard, so for better or worse, it is a better way than CATS to learn whether Kentucky measures up to other states.

Please note: The postings of "G. Morris", written by John K. Bush and which end in 2016, stated his views as of the dates of posting and should not be understood as current assertions of his views. The postings, which have not been altered since they came to an end, remain on this blog to preserve the historical record. In 2017, Mr. Bush took a position that precludes further public political comments or endorsements. He will no longer be contributing to this blog.