Published on Friday, March 23, 2012 by Rethinking Schools
By 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 get you ready for your 8th-grade test.
But we already knew all of that.
What I learned is that the test is also criminal.
Read more: http://rethinkingschools.org/archive/26_03/26_03_dandrea.shtml
Montreal Teachers 4 Change.org 
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