The Pineapple Question Redux
The assessment has become the curriculum.
- Michael Guerriero
Overthinking?
Overthinking?
Remember last year's pineapple test question controversy? Well, it's kind of baaack via a post by Michael Guerriero in The New Yorker:
Those with a mind for controversy or whimsy may recall the outrage last year over a certain talking pineapple on the New York State eighth-grade reading exam. The unfortunate pineapple passage was sliced, diced, and served up as an example of all that is wrong with standardized testing.In December, teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle "voted to boycott the Northwest Evaluation Association's Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) exam.":
The Garfield teachers are not boycotting all standardized tests. Their complaints, as outlined by Kris McBride, the school''s testing coordinator, are focussed squarely on the MAP, which, as an assessment tool, can be categorized as a low-stakes test: according to the MAP-makers at the N.W.E.A., it is an "interim assessment."