‘Brainwashing’ passage cut from CPS scholastic test
by ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter May 25, 2012 8:14PM
Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education with a copy of a reading test passage, that she says amounts to pro-charter-school "propaganda. The National testing company ash-canned the passage after Woestehoff, complaints. Tuesday May 22, 2012 I Scott Stewart~Sun-TimesARTICLE EXTRAS
Updated: May 26, 2012 1:01AM
A national testing company has ash-canned a reading passage that critics say subjected a captive audience of Chicago Public School children to pro-charter-school “brainwashing.’’The Scantron Corporation took action this month after the head of Chicago’s Parents United for Responsible Education demanded the company drop the passage and apologize to what could be thousands of Chicago students she said were forced to read it this school year and last.PURE executive director Julie Woestehoff said the passage, titled “Reforming Education: Charter Schooling,’’ is so one-sidedly pro-charter that its use amounts to an attempt to “brainwash’’ children “with propaganda about charter schools.’’“Students taking a test should not be subjected to false claims about charter schools which could cause them to feel humiliated, second-class or dumb because they do not attend a `better’ charter school,” Woestehoff said in a May 9 email of protest to Scantron.Written in non-fiction style, with pie charts and bullet points, the passage flatly states that charter
‘Brainwashing’ passage cut from CPS scholastic test
by ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter May 25, 2012 8:14PM
Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education with a copy of a reading test passage, that she says amounts to pro-charter-school "propaganda. The National testing company ash-canned the passage after Woestehoff, complaints. Tuesday May 22, 2012 I Scott Stewart~Sun-Times