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City Revokes Testing Word Ban

News organizations, bloggers and others scoffed at the city’s decision to discourage the use of words like dinosaur, war and Halloween, especially after an Education Department document said the subjects were listed because they “could evoke unpleasant emotions in the students.”

“After reconsidering our message to test publishers and the reaction from parents, we will revise our guidance and eliminate the list of words to avoid on tests. We will continue to advise companies to be sensitive to student backgrounds and avoid unnecessary distractions that could invalidate test scores and give an inaccurate assessment of how students are doing. New York City schools teach the broadest, richest curriculum in the nation and we can’t let this distract from the important work going on our classrooms.”

Article here.