Today's Times has painful article about a nonsensical story and questions that have been used and re-used on standardized tests in at least five states. Even the guy who wrote the original story thought that the way it was used was ridiculous.

First, read the passage and look at the questions.

Then consider that this is made for EIGHTH GRADERS.

The article about the passage is here.


This explained confusion I've had for a long time about questions on multiple choice tests:

Originally Posted by Deborah Meier in the NY Times
In the world of testing, she said, it does not really matter whether an answer is right or wrong; the “right” answer is the one that field testing has shown to be the consensus answer of the “smart” kids. “It’s a psychometric concept,” she said.

Even very intelligent children, she said, can sometimes overthink an answer and get it wrong.



Edumacators!

Last edited by Val; 04/21/12 02:28 PM. Reason: Fix mistake