This has to be the stupidest question of the 2012 testing season. Third grade students in New Jersey were asked to reveal a secret. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57432728/nj-school-exams-secret-question-angers-parents/
What exactly is the point of this question? It does not ask the students to explain what he or she has learned. It is not related to what they were taught or should have learned.
It is intrusive, nosy, pointless, and stupid.
Questions like this add fuel to the popular outrage against high-stakes testing.
Someday, people will look back on this era and wonder: “What were they thinking?”
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Maybe inspired by Lucy Calkins small moments
The trouble I have with this question is the pressure it puts on kids with REAL secrets. My kids (albeit not in NJ and a year younger than the tested kids) have secrets about where and with whom they live (several are homeless, one living with mom’s boyfriend who is not allowed by court order to be in the home, two living in truly SECRET locations – battered women’s shelters); secrets about status (in the US illegally); secrets about abuse – sexual, physical, drug, alcohol; secrets about parents in jail; secrets about parents who have lost jobs; secrets, secrets, secrets.
The stress that this question would cause in a classroom like mine is over-the-top. It would take me weeks (and we only have 17 days of school left) to undo the damage. They know that I know because I’ve gotten them help through all sorts of channels – social workers, counselor, admins, nurse, translator, etc., but they are NOT comfortable sharing with others about their situations.
It seems to me that the authors of the question don’t know today’s kids at all. Were they expecting responses like: My best friend told me that she likes a boy in the other 3rd grade. or – My mom told me not to tell anyone about the surprise party she’s planning for my daddy. or – My mommy’s going to have another baby!
OUT OF TOUCH and offensively so.
A secret is a secret. You’re not to tell anyone. I hope some students put that as an answer to show just how ridiculous the question was. Wonder what rubric they used to grade the answers?
Somebody interviewed mentioned, “I guarantee you some children will be writing things family members and parents would have rather not revealed to the state.” This is creepy.
No need to “look back” and say what were they thinking. Plenty of people are doing that right now.
Parents and citizens need to check the federal Privacy Act passed in 1974 and since amended. Also known as (The Buckley Amd.) Such questions that you have outlined may be in violation of the Privacy Act.
Frankly, it is outrageous for the state (whether New Jersey or any other state) to invite children to tell their secrets. How dare they! What an unbelievable invasion of privacy. Snoops. Big Brother Wants to Know.
Diane
Wow, and I had to go through my university and school district’s IRBs (and have parents sign permission slips, etc.) to make sure I was allowed to use students’ reflective journal writing in my dissertation (which sometimes brought about some highly personal points, but in a literature-based and low-stakes way). Obviously, I should have just made them into state standardized test questions. This is outrageous.
We all know that unfortunately some children are being abused outside of school and their situation may or may not have been revealed to authorities. How heartless for the test designer to torment these chidren with something that should be dealt with in a professionally supportive environment, not while taking a high-stakes test.
State asked totally inappropriate question. It has no right, no authority to pry into children’s and family’s “secrets.”
The fact that it did so shows that testing industry has no common sense and state of New Jersey is not exercising any wisdom in vetting questions.
The question should never have appeared on a state test.
Diane
Love your blog Diane. I look forward to every post!
Here’s a secret that needs to be told: UK-based Pearson has too much power over American education. And this test item suggests that the corporation is abusing its power.