Teacher’s resignation letter: ‘My profession … no longer exists’

[mbperrin]

31. Machines have been "grading" essays in Texas since the late 90s.

I taught English under the old TAAS tests. Here's what the machine looks for and what will get you the desired "5" rating.

Essay must be exactly 52 lines long, no more, no less.
Introduction and conclusion must be 5 lines long each.
3 body paragraphs must be 14 lines long.

The first paragraph must have 3 words, one of which will be repeated in each of the body paragraphs, and all 3 in the conclusion.
Each paragraph must contain within it 3 of the "approved proofs," such as explicitly saying "for example," "in my experience" and a host of others.

That's all there is to it. Just fill in with any other words you like with periods and/or question marks scattered in. Print, so that the OCR can read it, otherwise it goes to a graduate assistant in some university somewhere and will delay your test results.


I switched to Social Studies the next year, but I don't imagine anything's changed. 98% of my students have passed the exit-level tests required by the state over the last 17 years.

Crap, eh?