John Oliver features the Pineapple on his takedown of standardized testing

Check out last night's hilarious take-down of the insanity of standardized testing in this country by John Oliver; including the infamous
"Hare and the Pineapple" passage, which was  part of the NY 8th grade ELA exam in 2012.  This passage was exposed first on this blog the day after the exam was given and quickly went viral.  

But the real scandal is that before that, this  absurd passage and its associated ridiculous questions had been used by Pearson in their standardized exams in Florida, Illinois, Delaware, New Mexico, Arkansas, Alabama and other states for at least seven years before the New York media picked up on the story. Every time, students had been confused, teachers and parents complained, and yet Pearson kept recycling the questions, over and over again.


Below is the video from last night's how; to the right is a screenshot of our blog.

Gary goes national!

Today, Gary Babad, the brilliant parodist for our blog, was profiled in the NY Times.

One of the reasons Patrick Sullivan and I founded this blog back in March 2007 was to give a permanent home for Gary's amazing satires, which he had started writing for our NYC education list serv months before. (The other reason was to get the word out that that NYC parents were not uniformly thrilled with the arrogant, dismissive, and often destructive policies of the Bloomberg/Klein administration.)

But let's get back to Gary. Who would have thought that this mild-mannered social worker from Queens had such a wicked and barbed wit, that could so adeptly skewer the high-handed pretentious nonsense that constantly seems to issue from the land of Tweed?

Who can forget Gary's ingenious "Children First: A Game Of Irony”, in which the Chancellor gets to change the rules of the game as he goes along, or the “Children First” Game Gets Long-Awaited Update?

What about his reporting of the Mayor Defending DOE Blackwater Security Contract , or his scoop when the DOE ANNOUNCES BAN ON COMMON SENSE ? How about his announcement that Bloomberg Expands Congestion Pricing Plan to Schools?

Then there's the recent press release revealing that the DOE, in partnership with Microsoft and Blackwater USA, will engage in a $500 million expansion of the ARIS computer system to "personalize" instruction for every NYC student? Or his exclusive, revealing the plans of the Broad Foundation to Fund “High Stakes” Degree Program ? And what about his discovery that Secret Papers Reveal Klein Power Grab?

There are too many brilliant bits to list here. Just put GBN news into the search function above, and enjoy!

And please, Gary, when the Onion or Comedy Central come calling, don't forget the little folks who gave you your start.