[ProgressiveEd] Finally, a great test!!

[Carol Foresta]

--- Sglbaum@aol.com wrote:
> Oh Boy!!!
> 
> LAWRENCE, Mass. (Aug. 3) - This city's
> superintendent of schools, who 
> recently put two dozen teachers on unpaid leave for
> failing a basic English 
> proficiency test, has himself flunked a required
> literacy test three times.
> 
> Wilfredo T. Laboy called his failing scores
> ``frustrating'' and 
> ``emotional.'' He blamed his performance on a lack
> of preparation and concentration, as 
> well as the fact that that Spanish is his first
> language.
> 
> ``It bothers me because I'm trying to understand the
> congruence of what I do 
> here every day and this stupid test,'' Laboy told
> The Eagle-Tribune of 
> Lawrence in a story published Sunday.
> 
> ``What brought me down was the rules of grammar and
> punctuation,'' Laboy 
> said. ``English being a second language for me, I
> didn't do well in writing. If 
> you're not an English teacher, you don't look at the
> rules on a regular basis.''
> 
> State Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said
> he is aware of Laboy's 
> troubles with the test, but would not say how many
> chances Laboy would be given 
> to pass or what the consequences of another failure
> could be.
> 
> He said Laboy was doing an excellent job leading the
> district, and is getting 
> more time to prepare for the test. But he added,
> ``He's going to have to 
> pass. ... The situation will only get serious if he
> goes much longer without 
> passing.''
> 

The contradictions in our system never fail to astound
and amuse and horrify. Carol
> Since 1998, all Massachusetts educators - from
> teachers to superintendents - 
> have had to pass the Communications and Literacy
> Skills Test, which measures 
> basic reading and writing skills, including
> vocabulary, punctuation, grammar, 
> spelling and capitalization.
> 
> Laboy, who receives a 3 percent pay hike this month
> that will raise his 
> salary to $156,560, recently put 24 teachers on
> unpaid administrative leave because 
> they failed a basic English test.      
> 
> 

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