Schools

Are Standardized Tests Failing Our Kids?

The Film "Race to Nowhere" with its anti-testing, anti-homework, message will be shown at Cascadia College in conjunction with Woodinville's The Attic Learning Community.

 

Last week an eighth-grade standardized English test gained notoriety when students started going around repeating the moral of a fable in it over and over like some kind of private joke. The Facebook chatter was raucous. The last line, and moral, of the story was: “Pineapples don’t wear sleeves.”

Comprehension questions following the nonsensical story were so confusing that state officials eventually pulled them from the test after so much notoriety. Anti-testing advocates, meanwhile, have ta ken up the pineapple story as their banner. 

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When the pineapple story hit last week, even the tale's original author Daniel Pinkwater got involved, telling The New York Times, “Well give me a break. It’s a nonsense story and there isn’t an option for a nonsense answer.”

But Pinkwater also noted his delight at the student’s perceptions about how ridiculous the story was, as he’d well intended it to be

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The Attic Learning Community in Woodinville in conjunction with Cascadia College is screening the film for the Woodinville and Bothell communities on Monday, May 14 at 6:30 p.m. at Mobius Hall. The event is free but seating is limited. Registration is online here, http://www.racetonowhere.com/screenings/attic-learning-community-cascadia-community-college.

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