RU Ready prompts

Here is the prompt that my sophomore comp students will respond to for their part in the RU Ready assessment

In the past two weeks in your state, 12 teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17 were killed or seriously injured in single-vehicle accidents where they were the driver. One of those injured was your best friend. As you left for school this morning, you noticed the headline of your local paper, "Governor Proposes 18 as Minimum Driving Age." When you get to school, you find that many of your friends are involved in a heated discussion on the issue. You decide to write an editorial to send to the school paper stating your reasons why you support or oppose the governor's proposal. Include in your editorial examples from your own experience and observation that would support your opinion.


The only thing I dislike about this topic is the part about having a friend die. I suppose they're trying to give the students a personal stake in the prompt, but it just doesn't sit well with me. I think they could do this without linking it to the death of a friend. In a way, it's manipulating their responses. If they oppose raising the age, will they sound callous? I think tweaking the prompt to include linking earning a driver's license to grades and attendance would have allowed the students to have a personal stake without manipulating them.