Posted on 03/25/2005 12:16:06 PM PST by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK (AP) - City officials recalled preparation material for math tests that had been sent to teachers after discovering they were filled with math and spelling mistakes.
The materials were designed for math students in grades 3 through 7, and had been sent to math coaches and local instructional superintendents. The errors were found late Wednesday before the guide reached classrooms.
Several answers in the guide were wrong. There were also sloppy diagrams and improper notation of exponents.
There were at least 18 errors in the guide, and grammar and spelling issues proved just as problematic as the math. For example, the word "fourth" was misspelled on the cover of the 4th-grade manual.
School officials blamed the mistakes on an ineffective fact-checker.
"We have a clear protocol for review of all materials," Carmen Farina, deputy chancellor for teaching and learning, said in a statement. "In this case, a member of my staff inexcusably failed to follow our protocol, and I have written a letter of reprimand to the person's file. We recalled the materials within hours, corrections to the guide will be made, and it again will be distributed digitally."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking Friday on his weekly WABC radio show, said he was surprised to hear about the problems but acknowledged that mistakes can happen.
"I'm not the best speller in the world," he said.
"It is a complex world, and every day you wake up in my job and say, 'They did what?'" he said. "There are times when I'm halfway downtown on the subway after reading a few of the stories and I think maybe I should just get off at the next station, cross the platform and go back uptown."
No Chilld Lift Beehynde
Could this be some of that new math and new spelling!
The Blind Leading the Blind!
Now if Jose has 3 guns, and Clara has 8 crack pipes, how many drug deals does Essence have to make?
If nothing dramatically changes in our public schools, there will come a day when no one will recognize that there are errors.
Sounds like the author of my Physical Chemistry text - it must've been edited by the guy's ex-wife.
Yeah, whatever. In the publishing world, sloppy results usually reveal deeper problems within the group churning out the materials. Corners no doubt were cut here.
["In this case, a member of my staff inexcusably failed to follow our protocol, and I have written a letter of reprimand to the person's file.]
Problem solved. Nothing more to see here. Move along.
Does anybody remember this fiasco?
["DC Public Schools Wants You!!! Go to Class - It' a Blast," proclaimed an advertisement splashed on the sides of 75 Metro buses. The signs were part of a $41,000 ad campaign designed and paid for by the Washington, DC public-school administration.]
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=10084
Follow that urge, Mayor.
Think about it.
Not on the person who originally wrote the thing, though. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no.
I used to have a file at work called "Blame the Copyeditor" in which I would save hilarious examples of the rich and shameless blaming their booboos on the copyeditor.
Another reason not to base a public school's progress solely on standarized tests.
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