Diana Senechal conducted a little experiment over at Gotham Schools to see if she could earn a promotion to the next grade simply by guessing on multiple choice questions and leaving the written portion blank.
Surely it isn’t possible to get a 2—and thus a promotion to the next grade—by just guessing! Or is it? To find out, I conducted a little experiment…while this approach does not result in a 2 for all the tests, it comes a bit too close for comfort, and another guessing system might work. A fifth grader told me that his father had told him, “Just mark ‘C’ for all of the answers, and you will pass.” On the fifth grade ELA test, this would indeed have resulted in a 2.
Now, is this Talk of the Sound calling our students dumb or is that dumb administrators trumpeting test scores from a test that, quite literally, a chimpanzee could pass.
marking c on a standardized test
Administrators have been known to recommend that teachers tell students to mark “c” on standardized tests. This also tells students they really don’t have to study to learn.