The discredited questions just keep mounting.
The Daily News reports on Wednesday that foreign language versions of the state math exams administered at the end of April had translation errors, and that the state has said they will not grade 20 questions.
According to Rachel Monahan’s report in The News, the tests are offered in five languages — Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian and Spanish — for English language learners, and all of those tests had at least one question disqualified.
The disqualified questions bring to 29 the total number that were tossed from the English and math exams, which were given to all third through eighth graders in the city schools at the end of last month. Six of the 29 involved the now-infamous pineapple and hare passage.
The addition of the 20 questions revives complaints about Pearson, which created the tests as part of a $32 million contract with the state. Pearson has refused to answer questions about the test, though it wrote a letter to the state, defending the pineapple questions.
Kim Sweet, executive director for Advocates for Children in the city, pointed out that tossing out the 29 questions may not resolve the problem. “When children are taking a test and come upon a badly worded question, it can . . . affect their performance on the rest of the test,” she told The News.
But state officials told The News they were dealing with the problem.
“Together with Pearson, we are reviewing proofreading protocols to improve these outcomes in the 2012-13 test cycle,” said state Education Department spokesman Tom Dunn. “In every instance where errors were identified, they were fully addressed to minimize impact on children.”
On Wednesday, city officials will be advising principals about the next step in implementing the Common Core curriculum into their schools. Stay tuned.
And SchoolBook will also bring you a full report from our event at the Greene Space/WNYC on Tuesday evening. Teachers, parents and a few students came together to discuss how to integrate real-life events into the classroom. They also heard from the city’s chief academic officer, Shael Polakow-Suransky, who talked about his hopes for Common Core.
Also on Wednesday:
Merryl H. Tisch, chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, will speak at the Crain’s New York Business breakfast at 8 a.m. “Ms. Tisch will discuss the teacher evaluation controversy, whether the state has fixed its standardized tests and her thoughts on running for mayor next year.”
The state education commissioner, John B. King Jr., will be out in Hauppauge on Long Island to address the School Administrators Association from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. on “Instructional Leadership Strategies in the Age of Accountability.”
Also on Wednesday, Eagle Academy week continues, with a major event early in the day: the Saving Our Sons Annual Breakfast at Yankee Stadium Legends Suite. According to a news release, “This breakfast at Yankee Stadium will honor the individuals who have made a difference in the lives of young men. The Honorable Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg will deliver the keynote address. The 2012 Soaring Eagle Honorees; Honorable Cory A. Booker, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, The Tuskegee Airmen and Paul T. Williams Jr., President, Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, will be acknowledged.”
And fourth graders from Success Academy Harlem 2 and Harlem 3 will get in a final practice on Wednesday, at 2 p.m., before the chess team leaves for the United States Chess Federation National Elementary Championship in Nashville. Good luck to all. Send photos from Nashville!
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this post transposed the numbers and provided an incorrect value of the Pearson test-making contract.