State Test Scoring!

Recently I was one of the very lucky teachers who participated in scoring the 6th Grade English Language Arts Test for New York State. (Woo-hoo!) This is my 8th time scoring and here is my recommended "Scoring Survival Kit":

• Coffee and Water
• Chewing Gum
• Mints
• Hard Candy
• Aspirin
• Highlighters
• Mini Sticky Notes
• Pencils

Although the day was very long, and the intense focus was draining (hence the aspirin), I was still impressed and gratified to see how seriously every educator took this responsibility.  The morning training was rigorous with ample practice to "calibrate" our mindset to the new rubrics and the specific set of questions at hand. Every exam had a minimum of four different sets of eyes on it with teachers carefully consulting over tricky responses.  Dare I even say that I enjoyed it?  Well....not quite.

At least we did not have to deal with a "PineappleGate" like the 8th grade. Do pineapples have sleeves?  I'm not so sure now.....

If you have not heard the news out of New York - one of the ELA passages on the 8th grade exam was removed because some considered the text and questions silly and "ambigous". (It was about a talking pineapple challenging a hare to a race.) If you want to read more, here is a fairly clear summary.  And here is the passage and questions.

 






THIS is what $32 million dollars buys?
















Coming Soon - ClassDojo and our Penny War!