Eliminate Multiple Choice Exams!

Yup. I’m even a Social Studies teacher.  Multiple choice exams tell you nothing about what students know. These exams have always frustrated me, but when thinking about my post today, my son asked me what we could do, since it was raining.  Without prompting, he wanted to play board games, and then he chose Candy Land.  I didn’t offer “fun” choices for him to pick from, and I didn’t offer the board games that we have.  He, at 3.5 years old, made an appropriate choice from thinking through possible options in his head.  Life isn’t a multiple choice test; why is school?  My opinion—those that use multiple choice assessments are lazy.  Yup.

Now, I have used them, and my students still take multiple choice tests on test prep benchmark exams, but I don’t like them.  So, when I bad-mouth multiple choice, it’s not because I’ve always felt this way.  THESE…