Teacher: Dear students, I’m sorry about that test I made you take
This was written by Ruth Ann Dandrea, who has taught secondary English in upstate New York for 29 years. A freelance writer, she is co-author of “Women on Water,” about women’s kayaking, which will be available from North Country Press this spring. This appeared in “Pencils Down,” a new book from Rethinking Schools, a publisher of educational materials.
This is the letter from Ruth Ann Dandrea:
Dear 8th Graders,
I’m sorry.
I didn’t know.
I spent last night perusing the 150-plus pages of grading materials provided by the state in anticipation of reading and evaluating your English Language Arts Exams this morning. I knew the test was pointless—that it has never fulfilled its stated purpose as a predictor of who would succeed and who would fail the English Regents in 11th grade. Any thinking person would’ve ditched it years ago. Instead, rather than simply give a test in 8th grade that doesn’t get kids ready for the test in 11th grade, the state opted to also give a test in 7th grade to