Here is what you get when you don't make me sign a confidentiality agreement:

Hi there, Action Learning Systems. I have just finished giving the 9th and 11th grade Benchmark One tests (subtitled "Measuring Student Achievement California English-Languange Arts Standards"), and I can only conclude that the tests were created by the most well-prepared math teachers available. Dear readers, do feel free to take the test below (a small excerpt of the test I just gave my 9th graders).

1. In line 11, the poet refers to “spring mending-time” to show that
A. mending the wall is a very time-consuming task.
B. The speaker’s neighbor looks forward to mending the wall
C. The routine of mending the wall happens each spring.
D. Spring is only one of the times the wall is mended.
2. In lines 32-44, Robert Frost
A. refers to the present to illustrate the way people build walls.
B. takes the reader to the future when people make a new type of wall.
C. speaks of a time when people agreed that walls should not be built.
D. refers back to a time that would exist before a wall was ever built.
3. The phrase “He will not go behind his father’s saying” (line 43) makes the neighbor seem
A. hospitable
B. stubborn
C. clever
D. disagreeable
4. What is the effect of this poem being written from the first person point of view?
A. The poem emphasizes the importance of having long-term friendships.
B. The reader is able to see that one neighbor is hard working, while the
other neighbor is lazy.
C. The poem makes it clear that both neighbors share strong, traditional
values about work.
D. The reader knows what one of the neighbors is thinking, as well as what
he chooses to do.
5. The poet shows that “good fences make good neighbors” today by
A. repeating this idea more than once
B. writing in the present tense
C. showing how neighbors work together
D. including dialogue in the poem
6. The speaker’s references to “a spell” (line 18) and “elves” (lines 36-37) add a tone of
A. comedy
B. playfulness
C. logic
D. sadness

7. Based on his behavior, the speaker seems
A. closed-minded
B. angry
C. selfish
D. cooperative
8. The speaker influences the reader’s view of the neighbor by showing that he
A. may be hard-working, but he is not friendly
B. does not like to think too much
C. is unwilling to take care of cows
D. is unskilled at mending the wall each year
9. The dialogue in the poem shows the speaker’s
A. interest in the wall’s effect on his relationship with his neighbor
B. dislike of mending the wall each spring
C. belief that magical elves cause the wall to fall apart every winter
D. dislike of rabbit hunters and their dogs

Number 1: I can only assume the answer is C, although it isn't really clear in the poem, and a strong argument could be made for D.

Number 2: After contemplating this one for a couple days, I can only conclude that "32-44" is a typo that should read "32-34," in which case the answer is likely D, although the wording is still quite awkward, the "before a wall was ever built" making it sound like the far distant past, before any walls had been built. If in fact they meant line 44, then the question is even more awkward, because that encompasses everything in the poem about elves and the "old stone-savage" and whatnot, which is apparently not relevant to the question, and then leaving off the very last line for no apparent reason.

Number 3: Is probably B, but I can see how kids might be tricked into D. I might have been as well.

Number 4: Hopefully this one is D.

Number 5: This is my favorite (by which I mean, of course, my LEAST favorite). Unless I am very much mistaken, the whole point of the poem is that the phrase "good fences make good neighbors" is an outdated cliche that should be examined. And does today mean when the poem was written or 2005? I would guess C, but I completely disagree with the premise of the question, and I think a large number of my kids are smart enough to understand the real meaning of the poem as well.

Number 6: I would say B, but it could as easily be A depending on how you read the poem.

Number 7: I have no idea. Maybe D. The others seem to negative, and he is, after all, helping to mend the fence, but "cooperative" seems like an awfully simplistic representation of this speaker, who spends half his time needling his neighbor.

Number 8: We can easily rule out C and D. A and B seem equally likely, and I'd go for B, but this one's a stumper. Maybe it's A. I'm waffling. Wouldn't you think that if someone with a Master's degree in English can't pass this test, it's a little beyond 9th graders?

Number 9: Now this one is clearly a trick question, as there is no actual dialogue in the poem. Oh, sure, there are quotation marks, which might make you think there is dialogue, but look more closely: In lines 30 through 36, for example, there is no evidence that the speaker actually voices those thoughts. He simply says "if I could put a notion in his head." That's a big if. And he only says "I could say 'Elves' to him," not that he actually DOES say "elves." In fact, the only words we have evidence of someone saying in the poem are the following: The neighbor says twice "good fences make good neighbors." I can only assume that the speaker and the neighbor both say to the stones "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!" although I don't think you could say unequivocally that it gets said at all. And finally, it would seem that the speaker tells the neighbor that his apple trees will "never get across/ and eat the cones under his pines," although you'll notice that those words are paraphrased, and not a direct piece of dialogue. To put it more simply, if you read a story in which the narrator said "I told Danny he should cut his hair," it is not dialogue. Dialogue would be "I said to Danny, 'cut your hair.'" Sure arguments, even valid ones, could be made on the other side, but I don't think I'm convinced that the neighbor repeating a cliche out loud, them talking to the rocks, the speaker commenting on what he could say, and the speaker telling us that at one point he said something to his neighbor, add up to "dialogue."
I am a good little conformist test-taker though, and there is no space for a write-in answer, so I will have to choose one. C is ruled out because it's not exactly true. D is true but not relevant to the "dialogue." Of the other two, I have a problem with B (in a moment, don't you worry, I'll tackle that), but there's no real evidence for A, although I think the speaker is interested. My problem with D is that I don't think he actually dislikes mending the fence. He calls it a "game," he feels mischevous, enjoys casting "a spell." To say that he dislikes mending the wall is like saying he doesn't enjoy the work, when what he doesn't enjoy, I think, is the fence itself, and the idea that men put up boundaries between themselves and their "property," which is after all, nature, and can hardly be owned, as the earth's own actions against the wall reflect each spring.

Anyway, I gotta go, but this kind of thing really chaps my hide.