FYI - News article..I'm glad we're homeschoolers!
Diana Asberry
----Original Message Follows----
To: [email protected], Azlearners@...,
[email protected], [email protected]
Subject: [coreknowledge] FYI - News article
Many Sent to Summer School in Error
.c The Associated Press
By MELANIE CARROLL
NEW YORK (AP) - As many as 3,000 public school children in New York City may
have been sent to summer school this year or held back a grade because of a
scoring error by a testing company.
CTBMcGraw-Hill, a Monterey, Calif.-based company that has tested millions of
students across the nation in its 72 years, notified the Board of Education
about the mistake this week. Nine other school jurisdictions were affected
as
well, but the company refused to name them.
Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew called for an independent audit of the testing
company, which received more than $2 million from the school board in 1998,
and demanded company officials attend a board meeting Wednesday to explain
how the error occurred.
Student test scores were incorrectly lowered because of a mathematical
error,
said CTBMcGraw-Hill spokesman Steven Weiss. He said scores would rise
``modestly upward'' with the use of new calibrations.
The explanation did little to mollify angry school officials, parents and
student advocacy groups as the board scrambled to identify the students and
figure out the extent of the mistake.
The tests, given last spring to 300,000 students in grades three, five, six
and seven, weighed heavily in determining that 35,000 students needed to
attend summer school.
Crew, who spearheaded the effort to end the system's longtime practice of
promoting students with failing grades, said in August that there were
initial indications that most of the summer schoolers would pass on to the
next grade.
But he revised that estimate this month, announcing that 60 percent of
summer
school students would have to repeat their current grade because about
14,000
students didn't show up at summer school or didn't bother to take the final
test.
The test problem was just another example to some that the city rushed its
new no-social-promotion agenda this summer without much thought or planning.
``It's another indication of how hurried and slapdash this whole process has
been,'' said Jill Chaifetz, executive director of the Brooklyn based
Advocates for Children, which sued the Board of Education on behalf of
parents whose children would be held back.
AP-NY-09-15-99 1713EDT
--------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ----------------------------
GRAB THE GATOR! FREE SOFTWARE DOES ALL THE TYPING FOR YOU!
Tired of filling out forms and remembering passwords? Gator fills in
forms and passwords with just one click! Comes with $50 in free coupons!
http://www.onelist.com/ad/gator1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: [email protected], Azlearners@...,
[email protected], [email protected]
Subject: [coreknowledge] FYI - News article
Many Sent to Summer School in Error
.c The Associated Press
By MELANIE CARROLL
NEW YORK (AP) - As many as 3,000 public school children in New York City may
have been sent to summer school this year or held back a grade because of a
scoring error by a testing company.
CTBMcGraw-Hill, a Monterey, Calif.-based company that has tested millions of
students across the nation in its 72 years, notified the Board of Education
about the mistake this week. Nine other school jurisdictions were affected
as
well, but the company refused to name them.
Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew called for an independent audit of the testing
company, which received more than $2 million from the school board in 1998,
and demanded company officials attend a board meeting Wednesday to explain
how the error occurred.
Student test scores were incorrectly lowered because of a mathematical
error,
said CTBMcGraw-Hill spokesman Steven Weiss. He said scores would rise
``modestly upward'' with the use of new calibrations.
The explanation did little to mollify angry school officials, parents and
student advocacy groups as the board scrambled to identify the students and
figure out the extent of the mistake.
The tests, given last spring to 300,000 students in grades three, five, six
and seven, weighed heavily in determining that 35,000 students needed to
attend summer school.
Crew, who spearheaded the effort to end the system's longtime practice of
promoting students with failing grades, said in August that there were
initial indications that most of the summer schoolers would pass on to the
next grade.
But he revised that estimate this month, announcing that 60 percent of
summer
school students would have to repeat their current grade because about
14,000
students didn't show up at summer school or didn't bother to take the final
test.
The test problem was just another example to some that the city rushed its
new no-social-promotion agenda this summer without much thought or planning.
``It's another indication of how hurried and slapdash this whole process has
been,'' said Jill Chaifetz, executive director of the Brooklyn based
Advocates for Children, which sued the Board of Education on behalf of
parents whose children would be held back.
AP-NY-09-15-99 1713EDT
--------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ----------------------------
GRAB THE GATOR! FREE SOFTWARE DOES ALL THE TYPING FOR YOU!
Tired of filling out forms and remembering passwords? Gator fills in
forms and passwords with just one click! Comes with $50 in free coupons!
http://www.onelist.com/ad/gator1
------------------------------------------------------------------------