20. The author most closely associated with the theory of clinical supervision is
A Fielder
B Cogan
C Flanders
D Berliner
E Getzels

22. A trend that will probably affect public education is that
A parents will place a greater emphasis on literacy due to multinational competition
B a larger percentage of the school-age population will be made up of minority children
C education is becoming a federal responsibility
D there will be greater choice between public and private schools.
E economic restructuring will force more women back into education

These are two sample questions out of the Arco Preparation for the Praxis II Exam. Why do I know that? Because I have to take the test in a week and a half, and this 140 question multiple choice test means more — according to the state of Pennsylvania — than my experience, my ideas or my graduate coursework — and it also means more than the opinions of the people in the School District of Philadelphia who saw fit to hire me to run SLA.

And these are the kinds of questions I’ll face. I sat there doing the sample questions, and every reason I hate these tests for our students came flooding to the forefront of my mind. To the first question, I read a fair amount of education theory, and yet those names didn’t ring any bells. Does this matter? Is it more important to know an author’s name or is it more important that I understand the concept of clinical supervision as one tool for working with teachers? Apparently, it’s about regurgitating the name. (The answer is, apparently, B. Knowing that, of course, did nothing to make me a better administrator.)

To the second question, I’d argue that NCLB and the federalization of the standards movement will "probably" affect public education pretty profoundly, and yet, according to the book, B is the better answer. To those of us teaching in the cities with our majority minority populations, that doesn’t really affect us nearly as much as NCLB does, and had they asked me to write about one of those topics, I would have happily taken it on… but no, filling in the bubble sheet by reading the mind of a test-writer is a much better way to certify our administrators.

And why is all this important? Because in today’s New York Times, Michael Winerip writes that FairTest, the test industry watchdog organization, is in serious financial distress.

This is bad news for all of us who worry about the increasing corporate influence in education, who worry about the test-makers becoming the curriculum writers, who worry about the damage that high-stakes tests are doing to our schools and our students.

The article is a must-read, and anyone who questions the need to have a watchdog organization to make sure that the test-makers don’t overstate their influence need only read the comments of the testmakers:

Kurt Landgraf, the president of the testing service, which administers the SAT, wrote in an e-mail message: "Perhaps if they had been more attuned to the public’s support for using tests to help teachers teach and students learn, then they might have had wider support."

To that I make this pledge: I pledge my support to FairTest with a donation that matches the amount of money I have spent on the Praxis Exam and all the test-prep books I have bought to figure out how to pass this crazy test.

If ETS gave away as much information as FairTest does, do you think they’d have the money to pay their CEO over $1,000,000 a year?

Support FairTest today — fight for our rights as citizens to still have a say in the way we educate our children. (And our adults too…)