Update: Oreo, Dog Thrown Off Building, Was Euthanized
People Wait For Tomorrow's UWS Apple Store Opening
Emily and Sarah Kunstler, Filmmakers
Cheap Chicken Wing Deal Ruined by Gunslinging Teens
FIT Students Busted For Drug Dealing Get Probation
Gotta love that the Department of Education handed out math test prep materials filled with spelling, grammatical, and, yes, math errors. Of course, the main problem is that the Department of Ed didn't have a copy editor with a math degree checking the book, but it seems to symbolize the problems with bureaucracy. The NY Times had a graphic (left) of some of the incorrect questions; the Daily News has noted the one that asked "students to circle the figure that shows a line of symmetry. All the answers feature a figure that shows a line of symmetry." Gothamist would be rolling on the floor with laughter, but we feel so bad for all the NYC city kids, who get ulcers because they are so freaked out by testing. And if you think that the kids might not realize that some of the answers were wrong, the cover of the fourth-grade manual said, "Mathematics Planning for the Forth [Fourth] Grade." Nice one! Deputy Schools Chancellor Carolyn Farina said, "We have a clear protocol for review of all materials. 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," but, really, only one person was checking over this stuff? Please.
Screwy Schools Math Exam Tests Dept. of Ed
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebookComments (10) [rss]
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
Tips
Newsmap
Contribute
Latest Tip:
Michael Alan's Drawathon Theater
Drawathon Magic!
Saturday Nov 21st
At the Gershwin Hotel
27th Stree
[more]
As for the first question, 178+212+254=644, and if you round it to the nearest hundred, it's 600. The correct answer should be B. The answer given in the handout is correct, unless you're not allowed to round down. When I went to school, in 19XX, you could round down; perhaps they don't do it that way any more.
The second answer of course is completely wrong...
Kevin - I think the instructions were to round each month to the nearest hundred. You didn't round EACH month. Rounding 212 down to 200 is fine since it is the NEAREST hundred. Answer is undeniably "C".
Forth instead of Fourth? Wrong answers on the math exams. The Board of Ed needs to get its act correct!
"... but it seems symbolize the problem with bureaucracy." It seems like Gothamist needs a copy editor!!
it's Carmen Farina, not Carolyn
Why does the copy editor need a math degree? I have two degrees in English (I didn't even take a math course in college) and I could figure out these problems. Considering the spelling and grammar problems, I'd say the editor just plain sucked.
those weren't typos in the test. those were actual errors, test was most likely created by a fellow victim of the NYC public school system.
I would say that the last bit there summed it up. You screw up majorly in a protected bureaucracy like the DoE and you get " a letter of repremand to the person's file". You dont get fired, you dont even (semantics here but what the hell) get repremanded, your file does. And of course, you get that nice pension and probably a mandated raise at the end of the year. If you could actually fire these people, they would be a bit more carefull, but you cannot, so they are not.
The Dept of Education made a mistake? Unpossible!
The sad fact is, we are spending more time teaching our kids how to test well than to think well.