Utter stupidity of scripts testgivers are forced to use. Word for word, no deviation.
I so much appreciate this post by Peter Greene at his blog Curmudgucation. We teachers used to gag on the words we were forced to use when giving a test.
Welcome Aboard Big Test Airlines
BS Test instructions are a unique piece of tone-setting, the classroom equivalent of pre-flight safety instructions on any airline that is not Southwest. These instructions accomplish many goals, none of which are desirable in a classroom.
... I say turn to page two and read the paragraph (the one threatening you with vague, ominous punishment if you dare to violate test security), and you of course do not. Certainly not the fourth time you've been told to read it in two days. Again, we are establishing a tone, delivering a message.
In six modules of testing, you will be told to sign a Code of Test Taker Ethics Pledge (don't cheat or violate security) three times. You will be told to read the section about test security six times. Test security gets a paragraph, all on its own page. Encouragement ("do your best"gets eighteen words over six modules. How many times will we tell you something encouraging, affirming, reminding you of your value as a student and a human being. None times. The allocation of space in the script makes it clear what is most important here, and it's not the students.
I will read the directions out loud as you read them silently just about as much as air travelers read the card in the seat-back pocket. I will ask you repeatedly if you have any questions, but of course by the time we get to those, it's clear that none of us is supposed to say or do anything that's not in the script.
I am supposed to tell you one bald-faced lie-- when looking at the scoring guides, the script makes reference to "professional scorers." That is a lie. There are no such people.
He's right.
The direction script is just one more indicator that there are many priorities in play here, and finding out what our students really know is far from the top of the list.
= new reply since forum marked as read
as did our testing monitors. No comments, just inward groans. 3rd and 4th graders would cry in frustration...I could not blame them. I was the teacher, and I saw several problems that I narrowed down to 2 possibles...and could NOT figure what they expected as the answer. So vague.
As to scoring I have horror stories about parents hiring lawyers to find out how their gifted kid did so poorly and the way the others did so well in comparison.
These were invested parents, and they did not take no for an answer. I hope their lawyers were able to help them. One of the students who did so well christmas-treed the answers. I know because I watched him helplessly. 
