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Appendix B: Two Measures of Reading Proficiency
- Brookings Institution Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
The NAEP measure of reading proficiency at eighth grade and PISA’s measure of reading proficiency at level 4 are comparable. Here we provide example questions from each. NAEP NAEP question at the proficiency level: consider the coupon in figure B-1. What is an acceptable way to place a $1 Bargain Basement ad in this newspaper? Appendix B TWO MEASURES OF READING PROFICIENCY 117 ___1. Phone in the ad, pay by credit card. ___2. Phone in the ad, pay by money order. ___3. Mail the ad, pay by cash. ___4. Mail the ad, pay by check. If you chose answer 4, you, along with 31 percent of eighth graders, got the question correct. 13291-09_AppB_3rdPgs.indd 117 6/6/13 10:47 AM 118 Appendix B Figure B-1. Coupon for Placing a Classified Ad in the Bargain Basement 13291-09_AppB_3rdPgs.indd 118 6/6/13 10:47 AM [18.209.69.180] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 06:20 GMT) 119 Appendix B PISA PISA question at level 4: Underline the sentence in the following story that explains what the Australians did to help decide how to deal with the frozen embryos belonging to a couple killed in the plane crash.1 Technology Creates the Need for New Rules Science has a way of getting ahead of law and ethics. That happened dramatically in 1945 on the destructive side of life, with the atomic bomb, and is now happening on life’s creative side with techniques to overcome human infertility. Most of us rejoiced with the Brown family in England when Louise, the first test-tube baby, was born. And we have marveled at other firsts—most recently the births of healthy babies that had once been embryos frozen to await the proper moment of implantation in the mother-to-be. It is about two such frozen embryos in Australia that a storm of legal and ethical questions has arisen. The embryos were destined to be implanted in Elsa Rios, wife of Mario Rios. A previous embryo implant had been unsuccessful, and the Rioses wanted to have another chance at becoming parents. But before they had a second chance to try, the Rioses perished in an airplane crash. What was the Australian hospital to do with the frozen embryos? Could they be implanted in someone else? There were numerous volunteers. Were the embryos somehow entitled to the Rioses’s substantial estate? Or should the embryos be destroyed? The Rioses, understandably, had made no provision for the embryos’ future. The Australians set up a commission to study the matter. Last week, the commission made its report. The embryos should be thawed, the panel said, because donation of embryos (continued) 13291-09_AppB_3rdPgs.indd 119 6/6/13 10:47 AM 120 Appendix B to someone else would require the consent of the “producers,” and no such consent had been given. The commission also held that the embryos in their present state had no life or rights and thus could be destroyed. Commission members were conscious of treading on slippery legal and ethical grounds. Therefore, they urged that three months be allowed for public opinion to respond to the commission recommendation. Should there be an overwhelming outcry against destroying the embryos, the commission would reconsider. Couples now enrolling in Sydney’s Queen Victoria hospital for in-vitro fertilization programs must specify what should be done with the embryos if something happens to them. This ensures that a situation similar to the Rioses’ won’t recur. But what of other complex questions? In France, a woman recently had to go to court to be allowed to bear a child from her deceased husband’s frozen sperm. How should such a request be handled? What should be done if a surrogate mother breaks her child-bearing contract and refuses to give up the infant she had promised to bear for someone else? Our society has failed so far to come up with enforceable rules for curbing the destructive potential of atomic power. We are reaping the nightmarish harvest for that failure. The possibilities of misuse of scientists’ ability to advance or retard procreation are manifold. Ethical and legal boundaries need to be set before we stray too far. If you chose the following sentence, you chose correctly: “The Australians set up a commission to study the matter.” 13291-09_AppB_3rdPgs.indd 120 6/6/13 10:47 AM ...