City Council Says State Math Scores "Not Acceptable"

City Council education chairman Robert Jackson was enraged over news that students were getting partial credit for wrong answers on the state math exams. The exams determine which students may advance to the next grade level, and many are worried students receiving partial credit would advance without the proper math skills to succeed. Jackson summed it up to the Post: "Two plus two equals four, not five. You have to get it right. If you are an engineer and you understand the process for determining the size of a building but you get it wrong, that building's going to be in trouble."

Though Schools Chancellor Joel Klein boasted that 82% of students passed the state math exams, many may be coasting through with partial credit points. Students received points for showing work, even if they got answers wrong. For instance, one student said a two foot skateboard was 48 inches long, but received credit for correctly adding 24 and 24. Another student got a point for setting up the division of 400 by 5, but didn't solve the equation.

Governor Paterson also chimed in on the situation, though his mind may have been elsewhere at the time. "You know, on a mathematics exam, you would get partial credit even if the answer was wrong. That's sometimes an educational tool. But I don't really know anything about it."

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By Jaya Saxena in News on June 7, 2010 11:00 AM

Comments [rss]

hudsonflow

2 + 2 = 5; for extremely large values of 2.

boogpowell

city council should look into the scoring more thoroughly. the way the test is scored, kids who got the correct answers and showed no work didnt get full credit. So to go along with his quote, i guess if an engineer makes a mistake on his blueprint but then figures it out and gets its right when building he is also wrong? I think the bigger issue here is not giving full credit for correct answers. Partial credit is fair when you know some info but cant get the answer like in the examples mentioned. The kids showed some knowledge by being able to multiply and divide number correctly. Partial credit is very unfair when you know the answer and get it right and gets points off becuase you were too smart to show your work.

ddhboy

Why? When your talking about these sort of tests your talking about state regents exam, IE pre-cal. Even the AP tests give partial credit. All this is is a politician trying to and successfully getting their name in the papers so they can put in their re-election campaign fliers that they're tough on education reform and nothing more.

Ishtar

You, you're, your...among other things.

Stevennnn

Partial credit has been going on for years so what is the big deal about it now?

To solve a problem it usually requires steps and sometimes students might get the first step right and then get the next ones wrong.

longacre

Nevermind being an engineer. You can't even work in Kennedy's Fried Chicken if you don't know basic math.

schadenfreudian mensch

You don't need to do math at Kennedy's Fried Chicken because there are pictures on the cash register so even you're illiterate in math and can't read you can still make change (so long as you know how to count.

Though the I did read that kids who did the best in math were the ones selling/dealing drugs since it's all under the metric system. They could convert pounds to kilogram then dollars per kilogram in their sleep.

ddhboy

Actually, the reason why drugs are sold in the metric system is the same reason why liquids are sold in the metric system, that is that the metric unit is smaller than english measurements, so say 1 Kg sounds better than 2.2 Pounds since Americans have a better frame of reference for what a pund is than a kilogram. They also package it in a particular way so it looks like you're getting more than you're actually paying for.

Its actually pretty smart.

longacre

Yeah, but even with high-tech registers, you might hit the wrong button and have to do it in your head...and if your drawer is short, you're done.

Guest

"Though the I did read that kids who did the best in math were the ones selling/dealing drugs since it's all under the metric system. They could convert pounds to kilogram then dollars per kilogram in their sleep."

and if they ever got it wrong, they would definitely get shot and probably die.

hmm... fear has its uses!

Guest

math teaches you logic. and conversely, if you're not a logical person, it may not be so easy to learn math.

and if these kids are failing math, it's no wonder why so many kids nowadays are doing stupid senseless shit.

so what's a solution? it may sound fucking weird, but i'd go about teaching these kids morals, and the logic behind them.

just my two cents. don't bother replying. i know i'm a weirdo.