[On June 4], I served a morning as a proctor (observer) for an end-of-year testing at one of the Asheville City elementary schools. I can only say what I directly experienced.
Myself and a teacher (two adults, as required) sat in a small (approximately 10-by-10 [foot]) closed room, watching one third-grader take the end-of-year math test. I served as the timekeeper and charted the total of 103 minutes of testing with only one three-minute break. I could do nothing, not even read a book: Just watch.
Oh, the mysteries of our education system. I really can’t figure out why this testing method was necessary, or whom I was supposed to be watching: the teacher or the child!
— Sarah Thomas
Asheville
