Joseph Barroso teaches at East Providence Area Career & Tech Center in East Providence, Rhode Island. He has used CDX’s Maintenance and Light Repair Online for three years. 

Teaching to the test has become commonplace in classrooms across the U.S. The pressure to achieve excellent grades and pass standardized tests provokes some students to cheat. This means not only that these students receive grades they don’t earn, but also that they miss out on knowledge they will need in the future.

Who recalls the classroom scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in which a room full of blank-faced students stare at their teacher while he explains economics? Much like the sleeping, gum-popping actors, today’s students are often bored out of their minds.