Beating Testers at their Game

This anecdote reveals something interesting about the nature of testing and the way it construes literacy. It comes from the early days of Ontario's Literacy Test, but is perhaps the more astonishing considering that at the time the test (without the current course option) determined graduation. Laugh...and weep?

Elaine and the Literacy Test

A couple of years ago I spent about 20 hours with students at a local school who were most likely to fail the literacy test. Virtually all of them presented both ability and behavior problems, but as we progressed I felt perhaps half of them might succeed. Needless to say I focused on very pragmatic procedures.

Elaine was less cynical than most, but quiet and convinced she couldn't pass. She tried the strategies, and with encouragement seemed ready to give it her best shot. I was most anxious for her to succeed. But she didn't. Her score was 5 points off the pass mark, and the school was convinced it should appeal her result.

The appeal failed. It was my sense of what the whole ordeal had done to Elaine that prompted me to write this piece.