Massachusetts has decided to do away with its mandatory dictation exam for prospective teachers. The dictation test, implemented under John Silber?s watch as chairman of the State Board of Education, measured test-takers? grammar, spelling and punctuation skills by asking applicants to take dictation. Now, however, it?s been replaced with a multiple choice exam. Why? Apparently the deaf community complained that the exam was both a form of discrimination, and irrelevant. Although the state doesn?t keep a record of the number of deaf applicants who have failed the test, the director of the Center for Deaf Children, in Framingham, said the number was ?significant?.