So you’ve been thinking I’ve been going off the deep end with my criticism
of standardized testing and data driven teacher accountability. Yesterday’s 8th grade ELA exam subjected students to series of reading comprehension questions based on a thoroughly senseless story The Pineapple and the Hare. I ask you to take a few minutes and follow this link to the story. If I summarized it, you would think me guilty of rhetorical excess.
Teachers report that the following were two of the questions 8th graders were asked to answer:
Why did the animals eat the pineapple?
a. they were annoyed
b. they were amused
c. they were hungry
d. they wanted to
Who was the wisest animal?
a. the hare
b. the moose
c. The crow
d. The owl
This is but one example of the kind of stupidity being inflicted on our children in the name of raising academic standards and accountability. This year, the teachers of these children will be evaluated in part on the results of their students on exams like this. Both are being victimized by the enemies of public education and their corporate testmaker friends who are bent on destroying public education as we have known it.
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