Hi Stakes Testing Madness: Racist, Anti-Intellectual and a $32,000,000 Public Trough for Privateer Testmaker Pearson
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Too bad the content of recent NY State 3rd to 8th Grade tests is being withheld from the public because from what I hear they would make great material for Saturday Night Live, if not Saturday Night Fever. The idea that that teachers will be evaluated, and students promoted or held back on the basis of these ill designed tests strains credulity. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Pearson for designing tests that are so ambiguous , illogical and culturally biased that they discredit the entire New York State Department of Education, which paid 32 million dollars for these tests, and the US Department of Education, which required they use them to evaluate teachers in order to receive Race to the Top funding.
Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Principal Investigator
Bronx African American History Project
640 Dealy Hall
Fordham University
Bronx, NY 10458
Phone (718) 817-3748 Fax (718) 817-3385
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A PRINCIPAL'S LETTER OF OUTRAGE ABOUT THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS (ELA) EXAMS
P.S. 321 lphilli@schools.nyc.gov
180 Seventh Avenue • Brooklyn, New York 11215 • 718-499-2412 • FAX: 718-965-9605
• Elizabeth Phillips, Principal • Beth Handman, Assistant Principal
• Elizabeth Garraway, Assistant Principal • Ryan Bourke, Assistant Principal
April 19, 2012
Dr. John B. King Jr.
New York State Education Commissioner
New York State Education Department
89 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12234
Dear Commissioner King:
I urge you to carefully review this year’s state ELA exams. I have been principal for 13 years and have read the tests each year. Although there are always issues with selected questions, generally it is only one or two per test that the assistant