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  • 2002-06-23 (xsd:date)
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  • The L.A. Math Test (en)
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  • The Internet humor piece variously entitled The L.A. Math Proficiency Test or The City of Los Angeles High School Math Proficiency Exam has been part of online lore since at least 1993, and some of our readers recall having seen photocopied versions of it as far back as the mid-1980s: Over time the exam has gone through some changes, notably the inclusion of questions 9 and 10 (which were not part of the earlier versions). Its humor is obvious: it simultaneously deplores the state of education in large urban centers and furthers the myth that teens from such regions are thoroughly steeped in a drugs, guns, gangs, and promiscuity culture by asserting that even the math questions directed towards them have to be framed in that context to be relevant to their lives. None of the Norman Rockwellian Johnny has three apples; if he sells two to Ben, then Becky gives him five, how many does he now have? innocence appears here — even the test's header furthers the jape by asking for the student's name and gang affiliation, presenting the casual presumption that all the high schoolers being given the test are gang members. Obvious humor or not, the test has landed a number of educators into trouble over the years. The Canadian National Post reported that a teacher at the Juniper School in Thompson, Manitoba, was suspended from her duties in June 2002 for distributing this test to students: (Diana Hiscock, general manager of the Thompson Citizen, said that the controversial quiz wasn't given out as an official school assignment or test: The teacher gave it to a few of her grade 8 students to read as a fun thing. They took it home, and one of the parents saw it and complained to the school board.) In 2007, Will Klundt, a teacher at Moriarty High School in Moriarty, New Mexico, incorporated the following question into the final exam he administered to his fall semester algebra freshman class: Wayne Marshall, the school's principal, declined to discuss whether any disciplinary action would be taken against the teacher. In 2008, a Barrie, Ontario, police officer was suspended from duty for forwarding a version of the L.A. Math Test to other officers via e-mail: In 2016, an Alabama teacher on the verge of retirement was put on leave after she reportedly gave the test to a middle school math class: Those named in these later examples are far from the first persons to have been disciplined for distributing the L.A. Math Test. In 1997, six teachers at the Elsie Robertson High School in Lancaster, Texas, and another at the Norte Vista High School in Riverside, California, were suspended for doing the same thing. Likewise, in 1994, a Chicago elementary school teacher who gave a similar test was suspended for thirty days without pay and then resigned. Also in 1994, an Indiana high school teacher who gave the test apologized but was suspended anyway. And in 1993, a similar test was printed on phony school letterhead and passed around at workplaces in Redwood City, California. (en)
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