They’re doing good work on the education beat at the Portland Press Herald1. Now they’re onto the case of the 8th grade writing exam:
More than three-quarters of Maine’s eighth-graders performed below standard on the state writing test for 2007-08, prompting education officials to toss the results and try to figure out why so many students missed the mark.
State Education Commissioner Susan Gendron and her staff say the one-question test was somehow flawed because 78 percent of the estimated 14,900 eighth-graders who took the exam failed to write a persuasive essay as required.
You can see the full article here: Students, exam both come up short.
The theory being put forward is that the prompt — concerning television and school work2 — made the students angry and they ran their mouths, figuratively speaking. The prompt had been tested previously and had seemingly “worked.”
Hence the explanation in letters home accompanying the 8th grade scores:
Although eighth grade students were also administered a writing test, these scores will not be reported due to results that were inconsistent with field test results for this prompt.
Here”s something precious:
Gendron and her staff say parents shouldn’t worry. Students are learning to write.
If you say so! And our education bureaucrats, are they learning to test?
1. You will have seen their article the previous Sunday, “School-contract sticker shock,” parsed for Downeast readers here.
2. The test is here.