A Little Comment(ary)...

Test – and results – hit a nerve
By BILL NEMITZ
Portland Press Herald

Thanks to the Maine Education Assessment, we have seen the future. And, with apologies to the old cartoon strip "Pogo," they are us.

We're talking about the news, broken during the weekend by this newspaper, that the state Department of Education deep-sixed results from the MEA's latest eighth-grade writing test. Not surprisingly, it touched off a torrent of finger- and tongue-wagging among readers whose collective blood pressure shoots up at the mere mention of the phrase "public education."

For those who missed it, the test results were scrapped because an overwhelming majority of the kids apparently didn't do as they were told.

They were presented with a "writing prompt" that read: "Television may have a negative impact on learning." From there, they were instructed to write an essay either supporting or refuting the prompt – drawing from two lists of facts, one pro and one con, to buttress their arguments.

Instead, most of the kids simply wigged out.

"These facts are lies," wrote one student. "I do my homework and get good grades even though I watch TV."

By the time the smoke cleared, 78 percent of the 14,900 eighth-graders who took the test had flunked – a 50 percent increase over the previous year's failure rate.

That prompted Education Commissioner Susan Gendron and her underlings to conclude that the "intellectual exercise" had morphed into an "emotional response" and thus could not be relied upon as an accurate measure of the eighth-graders' writing skills.

Probably so. But it was also a sign of the times.

From text messaging to blogs to the reader comments that will inevitably appear within minutes of this column hitting the newspaper Web site, writing in this lightning-quick Internet era is less and less the product of careful deliberation and composition. Rather, it's too often reduced to the mindless blurt impulsively channeled through an always-beckoning keyboard.

Correct spelling? Fuggedaboutit.

Proper punctuation? yeah right

Coherent thought? UG2BK.

No surprise, then, that when the MEA prompt touched an obviously sensitive nerve, the kids grabbed their pencils (which, btw, are so 20th century) and opened fire.

Just as many adults went into reader-comment orbit after digesting the MEA story in Sunday's newspaper.

"C what happens when U allow inbreeding, U get dumb kids," opined "Edwyn thrash,"

Chimed in "Justin Jones": "At least they know their ABCs. A=always (free) B=birth C=control."

Then, courtesy of "drew5500," there's this insightful political analysis: "Thank you liberals! Lovely results!!!"

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=209131&ac=PHnws