Word: exam
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Hoping to become a policeman in New London, Conn., Robert Jordan, a corrections officer, took the exam and scored well. In fact, too well. The town dropped the top 63 scorers, perhaps thinking they would be too intellectually restless to walk a beat. Now Jordan is suing the town, arguing that he's been discriminated against because he's intelligent. How common is it to be too smart for one's own good? Apparently, very...
...political world are not concepts to be sneezed at. Case in point: Massachusetts teachers and teachers-in-training have been having a rough time of it lately. First, the facts. Three weeks ago it was announced that nearly two-thirds of teaching candidates had failed a newly required competency exam. In the aftermath of that announcement, politicians had a field day, rushing to judgment on the test-takers and their college teachers. House Speaker Tom Finneran (D-Mattapan) denounced the test-takers as "idiots" and proclaimed college diplomas worth nothing more than a "used Kleenex that's been lying...
...facts not often stated in the coverage of this debacle. The teacher test was imposed upon candidates for the first time this year. Students were informed that the 8-hour, largely free-response exam was a requirement for certification only a few weeks before they had to sit for it. Little information was given as to the structure of the exam, and no practice tests were released. Three weeks after the announcement of the dismal test scores, the Board of Education has only just informed the students, the only people directly involved with the test, of their scores. The board...
...other hand, I'm very, very concerned about the apparent results of this exam. I'd like to think that our colleges are preparing our teachers well, believing as I do that teachers (not politicians) are the ones who will shape the future. I know that the public school system needs reform, and I'm in favor of strong state certification requirements to contribute to that reform. So I wince when I hear the percentage of students who failed and wince again when I think about how much we as a state and a nation have to do to remedy...
...anyone." So the 31-year-old from Chengdu taught himself English while working as an elementary school teacher, went off to run a travel agency in Tibet for four years, then set up a computer store in the southern city of Kunming. In 1996 he passed a university entrance exam to study international finance and economics. He paid for his sister to study Japanese; she now works for Sony in Shanghai, and Zhong hopes to join her there very soon, working for a foreign bank or investment house...