After a day with the Swedish National Test constructors for English Language Arts, the futility of creating rubrics for the assessment of language skills became crystal clear. Writing is a Work of Art. How do you assess art in rubrics? We can assess reception skills like reading and listening by counting correct answers in comprehension tests, but when assessing writing it is impossible to predetermine which variables will be present in the students’ productions. Every student produces their own idiolect with such a variation of nuances that any rubrics will fall short in both validity and reliability. Therefore, there will be no rubrics in the English National Tests in Sweden for a foreseeable future, the constructors promise. I, for one, am happy for that.
For English (ELL) Teachers
