V05-28

Question

In recent years, directors of remedial reading programs have struggled to find a way to provide their students with sustained independent reading practice with texts that challenge students to apply their word-decoding and phonics skills without overwhelming them. In response to this quandary, Roger Wade, the director of a private corporation known as the Reading Readiness Institute, piloted a system of in-class assessment that would, ideally, have allowed teachers to make individual recommendations for the difficulty level of book each student could read independently with the most success. The six Institute teachers testing the program were required to build two 10-15 assessment periods into each class session, during which they would use company-issued Reading Rating Sheets to evaluate each student’s performance on a specific section of text, which came from a book of pre-determined difficulty. Teachers would then assign students one of three rankings – A, B, or C – based on their comfort with the text on the Rating Sheets. Parents were also required to complete short Homework Surveys, which provided teachers with additional, but similarly-focused, information about student reading at home.

The program was temporarily discontinued after only 6 weeks, however, when all six teachers protested that the addition of assessment periods had forced them to drop other activities that they considered vital from their curricula. Teachers also complained that time spent assessing individual students took attention from general classroom management. The Reading Readiness Institute has taken teacher complaints into account and is currently adjusting its individual assessment program.

It can be inferred from the passage that a successful revision of the individual assessment program would result in

A.  a program adjustment that allows for individual reading recommendations without disrupting essential class activities.
 B.  elimination of in-class assessments so that teachers can focus on vital class activities.
 C.  a challenge for students' word-decoding skills and phonics skills.
 D.  the omission of at least one in-class assessment period.
 E.  better cooperation among Institute executives, teachers, and parents of students.

Tetianaa · Answer

Explanation

Because this is an inference question, the answer is not stated directly in the passage, but must be drawn from the information given. To begin, review the sections of the passage where the teachers’ complaints are discussed; if the program has been temporarily discontinued and is awaiting revision, it is reasonable to assume that any adjustments to the program will seek to eliminate the problems of which the teachers complained. Teachers complained that they had to drop other activities and that assessment took time from general classroom management. A successfully revised plan would not overburden teachers in this way.

A. Correct.  This option correctly identifies both the complaints made by teachers and a way to eliminate the need for such complaints.
 B.  We cannot conclude that the resulting plan will eliminate in-class assessments. We are told they were causing issues but they may remain, just be much shorter or approached differently and incorporated into tests or other parts of the classroom activities. This is a tempting option but it goes too far.
 C.  Remedial reading programs already do this.
 D.  This option is too specific to deal with the general problem of teacher complaints.
 E.  Cooperation is not mentioned as an issue needing attention in a revised version of the program.

The correct answer is A

V05-28

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards