A visitor from the past would be most shocked by modern belief
that a set of questions given students are the best measure of
how they think or they level of intelligence. Of course, Abe
Lincoln came from a disadvantaged family and would most probably
today be identified as an individual whose family background
precluded great success in school. Test papers for English 11
year olds arrived after being graded by those who deem to know
how to take a test. Test papers included examples of the word
‘distinctive” being marked as incorrect and the test marker
indicated the word should have been spelled, “destinctive.”
Rachel Ross, headteacher of Woolton Hill junior school in
Newbury, exclaimed: “there are lots of errors. We feel somebody
has rushed through with the marking and didn’t apply the marking
scheme as well as they could have done.” Christine Blower,
general secretary of the National Union of Teachers in the UK
claims “one in five grades have been inaccurate.” It is time to
end the mania of testing and ret