Ken Graham: From the Editor

Teachers and administra­tors in Waitsburg are concerned about the abil­ity of their students to succeed with the "Smarter Balanced" testing that is now a require­ment in Washington State. Dena Wood's front page article discusses their dilemma and their hope that parents will step in and help prepare students, particularly with computer skills.

The Smarter Balanced website has a prac­tice test. Its address is sbac.portal.airast.org/ practice-test. I thought it might be fun for someone who completed third grade about 50 years ago take a shot at a few third-grade questions on that practice test. Here goes with some math questions:

Decide whether each number is a multiple of 6, a factor of 6, or neither: 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 12.

I'm not sure I got this right, because I can't remember what "factor of 6" means. If I were in the third grade and the teacher had taught factors recently, I'd probably do okay.

Now for something a little more compli­cated:

David wants to create the L-shaped desk shown. He decides to buy two rectangular desks and put them together. - Drag numbers into the boxes to show the missing directions. - Use the Connect Line tool to draw a line dividing the diagram into two desks. Make each desk 5 feet by 2 feet. - What is the total area of the L-shaped desk?

Drag numbers into the box to show your answer.

This is the type of question that makes teachers concerned about students' computer abilities. Those students who don't have regu­lar use of a computer at home are likely to be at a distinct disadvantage. A student who's a whiz with a mouse and has decent math skills - and can follow fairly complex instructions - shouldn't have trouble with this. Third- graders who haven't spent a lot of time with a PC and a mouse, wellhellip;

I only attempted the first English Language Arts question. You start by reading a story about Beth, Sam, Tim and their Grandparents, who own a shoe store on Main Street. The kids want to paint a mural on the store's wall, but grandma and grandpa are hesitant.

After reading the story, a third-grader tak­ing the test must answer the following:

What inference can be made about Tim's relationship with Sam? Support your answer with details from the passage.

Below the question is a box in which an essay answer can be typed. Below that is the following: A. Choose the sentence that best explains what the use of dialogue shows about the relation­ship between Sam and his older brother, Tim. - It shows that they care about each other. - It shows that Tim does not want Sam to be lazy. - It shows that Tim needs Sam's help to finish the paining. - It shows that Tim tries to make Sam do things he does not like doing. B. Which sentences from the passage best sup­port your answer in A? - "Sam, you can't just sit there." - "On the other hand, Time, Sam's older brother, made the painting seem easy." - "Sam was not sure what his role would be." - "I don't want to ruin any of your ideas."

By the way, there are 99 questions on each of these two tests.

It would be nice to think that the third- graders in our communities have the intellec­tual skills to succeed with these questions. But I'll tell you what, my brain would hurt after attempting 198 of them.