[mgc1122]

Is this the educational equivalent of "cooking the books"?

[GovernmentShrinker]

This is just too transparent for words! The kids can't write a coherent essay on the topic "write about a time you had a great day at school", and the educrats blame it on the wording of the question and the availability of extra time?!?! Nobody considering the possibility that most of the kids can't recall ever having had a great day at their pathetic educrat-centric schools? Anybody think the educrat authors of this test question were desperate to hear themselves showered with compliments about the great days they were providing to kids?

Now I don't doubt for a minute that most of these kids simply can't write anything coherent about anything, since they clearly haven't been taught to do so at school (obviosuly nobody thought to tell them that "essay" doesn't mean "list"), but a few must have learned how from parents or other sources. We'd quickly find out how many by requesting an essay on the topic of "a time you had a rotten day at school" (and I'm sure the little writers would have no trouble at all figuring out what to do with all that extra time).

The people of North Carolina need to run these bozos out of their education system without delay.

[dead]

I blame the pencils.

[irv]

Some education officials told the board that the question that asked pupils to "write about a time you had a great day at school" may have prompted them to write a list activities rather than an essay.

This would not be a problem if someone had taught them the meaning of the word essay.

Translation: The test isn't valid because the teachers are incredibly incompetent.

[Tai_Chung]

If the results are thrown out because of a poorly written test then those responsibile for approving the test should be fired.

The article lists the increased time available to take the test as one of the reasons for the poor results, but no time is given in the article. Would it have been too difficult to say it was an hour test or whatever the time limit is?

If this were an hour test, the school board wasted 200,000 hours of school children's time.

[Carolina]

NC Ping!

[Constitution Day]

Our publik skools at werk ping!

Announcing: North Carolina Chapter of Free Republic!
"Old North State Freepers"

.

Please Freepmail me if:

1) You want to be added to my North Carolina ping-list.
2) You no longer want to be included in this North Carolina ping-list.

FRegards,
Constitution Day

Old North State bump-list:
Articles relating to North Carolina, NC politics and NC people.
To add to this list, type *Old_North_State in the "To:" field.
To view articles on this list, click the link above.

Edwards Watch:
Articles relating to NC Senator John Edwards
(esp. regarding his Senate duties and upcoming campaign for President in 2004)
To add to this list, type *Edwards Watch in the "To:" field.
To view articles on this list, click the link above.

Free Republic Bump List Register
A listing of all Free Republic Bump Lists & their descriptions.

[Overtaxed]

Only 47 percent of fourth-graders passed the single-essay test, down from 69 percent the previous year; 63 percent of seventh-graders received passing scores, a decline of 10 percentage points.

Could the decline be because administrators were criticized for tossing out low scores to get the 69 to 63 percent figures in the first place?

[Desdemona]

"North Carolina threw out the disappointing results of a statewide writing test for schoolchildren Thursday, in part because the exam wasn't written clearly enough."

Oh, the irony. Oh, wait. They're educators. Do they know what that means?

[gcruse]

Don't raise the bridge, lower the river.

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

Let's see........

If they have a half hour they write a good essay.

If they have 45 minutes they write a fair essay.

If they have an hour they write a poor essay.

If they have two hours they write a terrible essay.

If they have all morning, they lose the ability to write & turn in a blank sheet of paper.

Yeah........OK.........makes a lot of sense.

[Phantom Lord]

The 9-1 vote by the state Board of Education will ensure that teachers and schools are not penalized for the bad marks.

Translation: Teachers will still get their 'performance bonus'.

Period. End of story.

[Richard Kimball]

Maybe they should hire the DC School Board to write the next test for them. Anybody else remember this classic?

[Political Junkie Too]

"write about a time you had a great day at school"

Maybe it's just me, but is this sentence grammatically correct or is it just spoken colloquial form that is written down?

I would have written this as ""write about a time when you had a great day at school."

Is it just me?

-PJ

[aculeus]

Idea: appoint Helen Thomas as Education Czarina in NC.

[Lancey Howard]

"write about a time you had a great day at school"

This is not so much "poorly written" as it is simply a poor question. I mean, the first thing a kid reading this would think is, "So, did I ever have a great day at school?"

This pathetic exercise was apparently designed more as a propaganda tool (the question subliminally suggests that "great days at school" happen all the time) rather than a true test of writing skills. I think somebody was too clever by half.

Speaking of which, I noticed that the idiot who came up with and phrased the test question was not named in the story. Considering the time and considerable expense of administering this useless (and now discarded) test, it would be nice to know if the idiot(s) who designed this test will be held accountable. (LOFL!!! Yeah sure, the scumbag teachers are going to hold one of their own accountable, hahahaha...!)

[chance33_98]

More info on story from a post I made awhile back - thanks brining us up to date!

[paltz]

COULD THEY REALLY HAVE DONE IT ON PURPOSE?