Wednesday, May 11, 2005

I love stories like this XXI

Unintended consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act: New York City 8th graders are failing state social studies exams at very high rates:
The failure rate for eighth-graders on a test that measures students' knowledge of basic history and government has climbed steadily from 62% in the 2001-02 school year, to 76% in 2002-03 and 81% in 2003-04.
81%?!?!
J.C. Brizard, the [Education] Department's executive director for high schools, said the real problem was that the 60-question standardized test requires that students be able to read and understand the questions - something he said many cannot do. "They have trouble comprehending what they are reading," Brizard said.

Indeed. Fred Reed said it best:

How is it possible to spend twelve years in school and not be able to read? How? It is beyond me. A sheet of dry wall would be reading in less time.

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