¶ … Bridging the Gap between Testing and Technology in Schools," authors Michael Russell and Walter Haney look at the potential effects of technology in schools on testing and assessment. The authors begin by stating that while many schools are emphasizing technological proficiency, state assessment methods often still make students take tests on paper. The writers argue that these written tests skew the results by undermining the performance of students who are used to digital technology. For the authors, taking a test on paper is like forcing modern accountants to take an accounting test using only an abacus.
The authors cite examples from several states and schools to support their argument. In Ohio, for example, students need to pass the Ohio Proficiency Test as a requirement for high school graduation. These Ohio students are just a small percentage students made to take such "high-stakes" tests across the country every year. Researchers worry that these paper-and-pencil tests show misleading...
In this school, standardized tests showed that scores in writing declined, even though students wrote more often on their computers after English classes. The authors conducted a randomized experiment, administering the same tests to a control group on a computer and to another group of students who had no access to computers and allied technology like spell checking. The answers that were handwritten were then transcribed to the computer, so the researchers would not be able to distinguish between the two groups.
Russell and Haney found that while the two groups did not differ significantly on the multiple-choice items, the researchers found divergent results in the open-ended questions. The students who drafted their answers on a computer…
