This is only a test...

High-stakes standardized testing, a plague that affects most urban schools, I thought I would avoid by becoming a music teacher. Yet my school, persistent in destroying any remnants of my utopian educational philosophy, has, more frequently than I would like, recruited me as a proctor for these exams (totalling several days per year). For the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes (which each contain around 60 students), there are myriad "testing mods" that must be provided. Each student fits into one of the following categories (these divisive measures should provide rationale for the necessity of my impressment):

• Standard Time
• Standard Time x 1.5
• Standard Time x 1.5 + Directions read aloud
• Standard Time x 1.5 + Directions read aloud x 2
• Standard Time x 1.5 + Directions read aloud + Questions and Answers read aloud (for non-reading tests only)
  
• Standard Time x 1.5 + Directions read aloud x 2 + Questions and Answers read aloud (for non-reading tests only)
• Standard Time x 2
• Standard Time x 2 + Directions read aloud
• Standard Time x 2 + Directions read aloud x 2
• Standard Time x 2 + Directions read aloud + Questions and Answers read aloud (for non-reading tests only)
• Standard Time x 2 + Directions read aloud x 2 + Questions and Answers read aloud (for non-reading tests only)

Even with all of this help, only about 41% of students met or exceeded standards on last year's exam.