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John Oliver Explains Everything That's Wrong With Standardized Testing

There’s one issue that has united parents, teachers and students alike in anger and outrage: standardized testing.

As those tests have become an increasingly important benchmark for the evaluation of students and teachers, the levels of frustration have also mounted. And as John Oliver pointed out on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” kids are now literally getting sick over it.

Kids throw up during tests so often that administrators actually have instructions for what to do when a child pukes on a test booklet.

“Something is wrong with our system when we just assume a certain number of kids will vomit,” he said. “Tests are supposed to be assessments of skills, not a rap battle on 8 Mile Road.”

Oliver went after the companies that make and grade the tests, focusing in particular on Pearson. It’s the largest standardized testing company, with nearly 40 percent of the market. Or, as Oliver put it, Pearson is “the educational equivalent of Time Warner Cable: Either you’ve never had an interaction with them and don’t care, or they’ve ruined your fucking life.”

See his full takedown of standardized testing in the clip above.

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