The Bobster
Senior News Editor since 2004
16
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...th_guide_errors
NYC Recalls Math Guides Full of Errors
Fri Mar 25, 1:16 PM ET U.S. National - AP
NEW YORK - 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 finally found late Wednesday just 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 miss
pelled on the cover of the 4th-grade manual.
School officials blamed the mistakes on an ineffective fact-checker, since they can't expect their quota-hire employees to know anything.
"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 grovelled and pandered.
"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 o
f the stories and I think maybe I should just get off at the next station, cross the platform and go back uptown."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...th_guide_errors
NYC Recalls Math Guides Full of Errors
Fri Mar 25, 1:16 PM ET U.S. National - AP
NEW YORK - 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 finally found late Wednesday just 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 miss
pelled on the cover of the 4th-grade manual.
School officials blamed the mistakes on an ineffective fact-checker, since they can't expect their quota-hire employees to know anything.
"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 grovelled and pandered.
"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 o
f the stories and I think maybe I should just get off at the next station, cross the platform and go back uptown."
