A Challenge to #Takethetest

EduTalk is a feature of SchoolBook that looks closely at words and phrases that are in use, but largely understood only by people who have passed through a teachers college or Tweed.

The Lingo: #takethetest

For the second EduSpeak installment, we are bringing you another Twitter trend: #takethetest, a hashtag some educators and others are using to urge policy makers to take standardized tests -- and make their scores public.

The drumbeat is coming from those who take issue with standardized testing, chiefly because they believe the assessments are poorly designed and are unreasonably relied upon to make judgments of students and teachers.

If you are in a position of power in the education system and think the tests are good and valuable, the theory goes, then you should feel comfortable taking them yourself and sharing how you performed.

Where it came from:

It all started on Dec. 5 with a post on The Washington Post's Answer Sheet blog that told the story of a school board member who took his state's standardized math and reading tests for 10th graders. This test-taker -- later identified as a school board member in Florida named Rick Roach -- got only 10 of the 60 math questions right and scored 62 percent on the reading test, even though he has an advanced degree. "Something is seriously wrong," he concluded.

The article went viral, and a subsequent Answer Sheet post identified Mr. Roach and provided sample questions so readers could test themselves.

Examples of it:

The #takethetest hashtag was started on Twitter by a teacher named Will Richardson (@willrich45), with this post: "I think we should tweet every Gov. to take his/her state achievement test and publish the results. #takethetest."

And some teachers have taken the cause to their blogs, like Mary Beth Hertz (@mbteach) of Philadelphia and Deven Black (@devenkblack) of New York City.