Dear Editor
Dear Editor Selecting Principals I read Naomi Levine and Richard Cohen's "The Principle of Testing Principals" (NL, May 3) with great interest, and I think their suggestions have real merit. It...
...Obviously, questions like this need to be revised if the tests are to have any objective validity...
...I would be glad to attend such a meeting...
...New York City DAVID PHILLIPS Ping Without Pong G. F. Hudson ("Upsetting the Balance of Terror," NL, May 31) has presented a cogent analysis of the new developments in Sino-American relations, yet he seems strangely reluctant to draw the conclusion his arguments imply...
...Yet the multiple-choice format stipulates that there is only one possible "right" answer...
...Hudson makes it perfectly clear what Chou En-lai hopes to gain by moves designed to "exploit the prevalent pacifist-isolationist mood of American public opinion": the recovery of Taiwan, a seat on the UN Security Council and American withdrawal from Southeast Asia...
...New York City WALTER J. DEGNAN President...
...Council of Supervisors ant...
...But Hudson is unable to cite any real benefits that the U. S. would obtain from this sort of "improvement" in its relations with Peking...
...In my opinion, roughly a third of the items on the test consist of value judgments subject to considerable debate among educationists...
...Having recently taken the Board of Examiners' test for teacher certification, I would like to suggest that someone do a similar analysis of the teachers' examinations...
...One of the qualifications for being a teacher is the ability to frame good questions for examinations...
...It would seem foolish for America to embark upon a policy by which it would gain so little while giving so much...
...It's time for someone to examine the examiners more closely...
...If the people who make up the tests for certifying teachers can't even do that much, what qualifies them to judge who can or cannot teach...
...New York City JOSEPH BELMONT...
...It seems to me that the next logical step would be for them to meet with one or more members of the Board of Examiners to pursue their proposals in greater detail...
...Thus, for example, prospective teachers taking the test have to decide, when required to indicate the "preferred" response to a student who has just answered a question correctly, between "asking a follow-up question" and "elaborating on his answer...
...The preferable response, needless to say, would depend on many The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...outside factors not included in the test item: Sometimes it would be better to do the former, sometimes the latter...
...Administrators Naomi Levine and Richard Cohen have done an excellent job of analyzing the shortcomings of the examination system used in New York City to screen applicants for supervisory positions in the schools...
Vol. 54 • June 1971 • No. 12
