Dear Parent and Taxpayer,
Thank you for your interest in your child’s assessment. The following is a response to your question. As you know the testing company does not give answers, just responses.
The testing/assessment industry has yet to determine the testing format. Students should be prepared to respond in all formats – essay, short answer, and multiple choice. This allows for more money to be spent in development of test preparation materials, training of teachers, training of test proctors and tutoring opportunities. Training materials, such as testing instructional manuals, can be developed for all formats, thus costing more money and killing more trees due to the expanse of paper oriented testing materials.
All students must use yellow #2 Ticondergo pencils with pink erasers. Two pencils will be provided to each student. This comes out of the assessment budget. These are funds that could be spent on other instructional items, but the state finance auditors note that these pencils may only be used for testing purposes.
Once all students have taken all of the tests the state department of education will adjust the scores to reflect passing grades for the majority of the students so it appears US students are competitive with other students in the world.
Again, thank you for your interest. We look forward to assessing your child and taking your tax dollars.
Sincerely,
Spearson
Big Testing Company
Here's What I'm Thinking 
In my assessment of your letter, I consulted with 2 specialists who used the data to confirm your point of view. We all know that anywhere ISD does not waste money. We spend it wisely when we adjust the figures. My wise old father used to say Liars can figure and figures can lie. He wasn’t even in education!!!!
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