Published: July 20, 2008 12:51 am            

EDITORIAL: Math test flunks the smell test

North Tonawanda, NY — It’s time to play “Remember When?” Remember when you took a test in school and the percentage of the answers you got correct was your score? And most of the time, a score of 65 percent was passing?

Welcome to the days of new math and new test scoring. The latest example of twisted logic and distorted test scores comes from the state Board of Regents in this year’s final exam for high school integrated algebra.

The Associated Press last week reported that the test administered in June was so hard that a student could get a raw score of just 30 points out of a possible 87 and still pass.

That’s because the state Education Department uses what it calls a “scale score” for its final grade, which gives greater credit for answering the harder questions.

Jonathan Burman of the state Education Department said, “Some have said this is too low. But you will find that it was a challenging test and the questions that must be answered are appropriate. Many students still did not pass at that level.”

So that’s how we do things these days. If there’s a question about a student’s ability to do the work, just say it’s too hard and give more credit for each correct answer. Supporters say using a scale score for exams is a way to ensure that one Regents exam is no more difficult than another.

Here’s another way to do it: Figure out what material should have been taught during the school year. Write a fair exam to test students’ knowledge. Let the kids answer the questions. Calculate the percentage of those questions answered correctly. Above 65? Congratulations. Below that? Summer school.

We think there’s something else going on here. We think the education community as a whole would rather not think of itself as a collective failure. When students fail, teachers share the blame, as they should. If educators can wangle a way to justify a score of 30 out of 87 as passing, it gets them off the hook.

The real lesson: If you can’t hack it, lower the expectations. Isn’t that a fine thing to be teaching our kids?

        

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