Fire Upon the Deep & Deepness in the Sky should have a special spot in anyone's library of sci-fi. True Names, Peace War and others are also standouts.

The article mentions the board member took (and failed) a 10th grade assessment test. But the linked sample questions are from a sub-article talking about a study of 8th grade tests? Surely the test discussed in the main article is different than the linked sample.

Can it be that anyone with a high school diploma (let alone the degrees the article claims) can not only fail a test with questions like these, but then come to the opinion that the test is at fault and not their radically inadequate math and problem solving abilities? After reading all this I have decided that the article must simply be wrong- the author has had a giant practical joke played on them, or the sample test questions were from the 4th grade version?

Quite frankly, if someone with 2 post-graduate degrees (even if his masters degrees were in basket-weaving and finger painting) could only hazard guesses at questions with this level of difficulty, they should simply resign from any job related to educating others. I'd also ask for a tuition refund from their university.