In the most recent EdWeek, Jane Owens calls us to “take back our profession, our integrity, and the education of our children.” Naturally, this demands the end of high stakes testing. Otherwise (under high stakes testing, that is) we forfeit our profession, forsake our integrity, and abandon the education of our children. Right? Who’s with me!?

Other Unnatural Consequences of High-Stakes Testing

When high school seniors with the required number of credits cannot receive diplomas because they are not good test-takers despite repeated attempts, do we rail against the powers that be who are holding our community’s children hostage by a series of inflexible hoops that must be navigated to graduate?

To clarify for any confused Californians, by “inflexible hoops” Owens refers to an untimed test that asks for tenth-grade proficiency in English and eighth-grade proficiency in math.

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Tomorrow is April 3, 2007. We’re good this time, right?

… when you set out to make a handout, something homebrew, not out of a supplemental, what computer program do you use?  Would all the regulars commenters stay regular and all the lurkers de-lurk?  For the sake of a tutorial I’d like to write, I need some answers.