THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 7, 1996 TAG: 9607040026
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 27 lines
Timothy Minium asserts (letter, June 22) that the Literacy Passport Test is really a third-grade-level test.
I have taught sixth grade since the inception of the Literacy Passport Test. I wonder if Mr. Minium has actually seen a copy of the reading test.
The test starts out on a sixth-grade level and ends on college level. The test is a Cloze test, which means that words are left out of paragraphs and the students must decide which of the four possible words makes the most sense in the paragraph.
Most of the 11 selections on the test are technical. If a child passes the Literacy Passport Test, he either has excellent luck at guessing, or is reading on at least a sixth-grade level.
I also take exception to Mr. Minium's comments on special-education students. All of my special-education students have to take the test. (I am a regular-education teacher with special-education students included in my classroom.) To receive a regular diploma, special-education students must pass the Literacy Passport Test. To label a special-education student ``illiterate'' is false, cruel and ignorant!
LYNN G. DAVIDSON
Chesapeake, June 22, 1996 by CNB