Stanford 9 Tests
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* “School Officials Distressed After Stanford 9 Testing” (May 5) challenges the reader rhetorically: “Go ahead--you try measuring the volume of a sphere.” I was no great shakes in math classes, but even I remember that this is a simple matter of knowing the correct formula--in this case, 4/3 times pi times the radius cubed --and then plugging in the numbers. Our geometry class (public school) used area and volume formulas to solve endless numbers of similar problems and knew them as well as our own names.
At the same time, I can’t imagine anything more demoralizing for students or teachers than testing kids on material they haven’t learned. Why can’t our state Department of Education and school districts design a standard curriculum for K-12 and then test students on that curriculum, with separate tests available for students who have gone beyond grade level? What is so difficult about this?
BONNIE SLOANE
Los Angeles
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