Test Questions

By Ann Bradley

When Sandy Nager arrived at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School this fall to take the Massachusetts teacher tests, the place was swarming with television cameras. Reporters buttonholed test-takers as they entered the building. Critics of the tests distributed fliers. A 58-year-old Fulbright scholar gave interviews before heading inside to retake the reading exam, which she had failed earlier.

Nager, 27, squeezed into a high school desk with a small writing surface and squinted against the sun pouring through the windows. She was determined to fight off her nerves and do her best. Above all, she wanted to avoid the humiliation that has befallen so many others since April, when 59 percent of the prospective teachers who took the exam failed. In order to get a license in the state, teacher-candidates must pass a communication and literacy exam, which evaluates reading and writing ability, and a subject test in their field.

The poor performance of aspiring Massachusetts teachers quickly became a national joke--fodder for Jay Leno, scolding newspaper columnists, and critics of public schools. What is less well-known is the story of the tests' tumultuous birth, a tale in which the friction between politics and public policy ignited a firestorm that has burned the Bay...