[RACooper]

Well to play devil's advocate.....

I think the tests are a good thing.

Way back when.... when I was in Highschool I remember the parents trying to force the History teacher and the English teacher to change the format and subject of their tests because so many kids were failing..... they also claimed it was biased against their background (in this case Italian). The teachers to prove their point that it wasn't the subject matter but the students changed the subject matter being taught for 2 weeks (Roman History, Italian Unification, the Rensiasance, Modern Italian History, Italian Immigration to Canada) geared towards what the parents said would be relative to their kids backgrounds, and tested the students on it.... guess what the pass/fail numbers were pretty much the same. Basically if it wasn't about hockey, soccer, girls, music, or cars most of these kids never bothered to pick-up a magazine nevermind a book.

The tests are supposed to test the students on the subject matter that they have been taught, not their lifestyle or background. If the effort is made, then results should reflect this.... I had to make an effort to learn about the language, history, and politics of Italy and I couldn't have cared less about at the time; but I still passed the test, even though the subject wasn't "relative" to my lifestyle or background.