Word: exam
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...have our own Dean Wormer in the form of Governor A. Paul Cellucci, who seems to think the teachers of Massachusetts are no better than the Delta frat boys. He has been holding teachers and teacher candidates on double-secret probation since the institution of a competency exam last spring, blasting away on his ceremonial, Silber-plated whistle...
Last week, a team of three education experts released a report announcing the exam is an inaccurate indicator of teaching ability and should be scrapped in favor of something better. The analysts worked only with the scores of the April and June administrations of the test, since the State Board of Education, with the oversight and prompting of Cellucci, has refused to release copies of the actual test questions. (Education program heads were invited to see, but not take or study, the test under prison-like conditions earlier this fall. No writing utensils were allowed in the room...
...despite the lack of access to the exam questions, education writer Anne Wheelock, Boston College Professor Walter Haney and Salem State College Professor Clarke Fowler managed to find enough discrepancies in the scores themselves (coupled with interviews of test-takers) to declare the test an unfair indicator of teacher preparation...
...writing and reading scores of some candidates (an unusual result, since both sections are supposed to measure verbal skills); and finally, there are remarkably inconsistent scores from those who took the test twice. Add to these findings the reports from some test-takers that the administration of the exam was disorganized and inconsistent, and it would seem worth re-evaluating this exam by actually seeing what it looks like...
Instead, Gov. Wormer--er, Cellucci--has decided to press ahead with this competency exam and add to it by testing current teachers under a similar plan, firing those who don't pass. His response to the report by the three education experts was as follows...