We hung the most dimwitted essays on the wall

Wed, 05 Jun 2002 19:00:00 +0000

I always tested well. Amid the tedium of worksheets and rote reports, I welcomed a standardized test, because it was something different. It would not affect our grades, and we couldn't "fail," our teachers assured us. It was just "to see where we were at." Today, a standardized test comes with a lot more pressure, especially for 12th graders. In many states, if you don't pass the test, you don't graduate. And if you do pass the test, but the company your state hires to grade that test screws up, you also don't graduate.

In the year 2000, 8,000 Minnesota students flunked a test they actually passed. The company the school district hired to grade the tests erroneously down-scored them. Fifty of these tests belonged to seniors, and for them this was a life-changing screw-up, derailing college admissions, graduation parties and the chance to stand in cap and gown with their classmates. A year later, another test-scoring company mis-scored 1,800 tests in Pennsylvania. In a few weeks, we'll surely hear about this year's blunders.

Salon.com > Amy Weivoda

We hung the most dimwitted essays on the wall