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Re: “Many students are opting out of testing by not trying,” April 11 letter to the editor.
Kudos to letter-writer Mark Newton for bringing intelligence and common sense to the school testing issue. As he wisely notes, students have no reason to put themselves out on exams, which for them are only bothersome, meaningless exercises. I concur completely with his suggestion that were the availability of something important to students (e.g., driver’s licenses), dependent on successful test performance, not only would the test results be more accurate and relevant, they and the learning they are intended to assess would both markedly improve.
Americans eagerly pay athletes millions of dollars to play games irrelevant to the nation’s well-being. In contrast, national prosperity is agreed to depend on improving school children’s learning. Yet we expect them to diligently strive to master difficult material for only vague claims that it might improve their futures. No wonder kids shoot hoops after school instead of doing homework.
D.R. Miklich,Denver
This letter was published in the April 19 edition.
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