Poet Fails to Answer Questions on Texas State Test for Poem She Wrote

If the author of the poem fails to get the question right, how do we expect a kid to do that?

Poet Sara Holbrook had some of her poems used in a test for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness. She decided to look up the test and see how she would do on it. She couldn't answer the questions for her own poem. She said she had a flash panic. She couldn't believe she wasn't smart enough to answer the questions on her own work.

Sara shared her experience because the emphasis that is put on these standardized tests needs to change.'Kid's futures and the evaluations of their teachers will be based on their ability to guess the so-called correct answer to made up questions.' She was mad she was not consulted on the questions themselves.

'Any test that questions the motivations of the author without asking the author is a big bologna sandwich,' said Sara. She said the only way for these tests to change is for parents to stand up and say no more.