Is there a suggestion box?

For the last four days, my mornings have been consumed with the PSSAs--the state standardized tests a la No Child Left Behind. Needless to say, these have not been fun mornings by any stretch (especially as they started two days after taking the SAT).

This week tested math and reading. And to any PSSA-test-makers out there, I have a suggestion: please, please make the reading sections more interesting.

Here's the setup: we have to read passages, poems, and articles, then answer multiple-choice questions and write an open-ended response related to those materials. Here's the problem: the passages, poems, and articles tend to be so mind-numbing that I have to physically move my eyes over each line five times to take it in.

Now, in my opinion, just because the tests do not count towards our grades and are only used to play some weird money distribution game, does not mean they can't be interesting. Really. And if the goal is to raise students' scores, I honestly think passages that capture and hold our interest enough for us to think about them in a way that doesn't cause mental fogginess would do the trick.

And while we're at it, though we haven't done the writing section yet, due to prior PSSA experiences I'd like to throw in a request for fun or interesting essay prompts. As long as we're going to be spending a few hours on the tests...

On the bright side, we're done!....until April....