by REERA YOO | @reeraboo
editor@charactermedia.com
About 200 eighth-grade students in New York might have to retake their state’s standardized math exam after a glitch mistakenly printed some of the exam’s questions in Korean.
As part of the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) initiative, New York is required to test its grade-school students in English/language arts and mathematics at the end of each grade. For ESOL students, translated versions of the exam are available in Russian, Korean, Chinese, Haitian Creole or Spanish.
Although math is often regarded as a “universal language,” hundreds of Russian-speaking eighth graders found themselves scratching their heads over Algebra questions written in Korean this past week, according to Chalkbeat. One principal who viewed the exam said that in addition to several multiple choice questions, directions and a reference sheet were also printed in Korean.
“If you have a brand-new immigrant from Russia right now, they are clearly losing their minds,” said the principal.
New York’s state assessment office sent schools a memo about the glitch on Wednesday. It also announced that the state will be sending replacement test booklets on Thursday to allow affected students to retake the misprinted parts of the test.
Apparently, this is not the first time a Common Core exam has contained glitches. In 2012, the English language arts exam included a widely criticized reading passage with the nonsensical theme, “Pineapples don’t wear sleeves.” Since then, New York has amended its $32 million contract with Pearson, the publishing giant responsible for creating the state’s exams, to include penalties for typographical errors. The state has also forced Pearson to hire an independent group to check foreign-language translations.
It is uncertain whether or not Pearson will be penalized for misprinting Korean questions on the Russian-language math test, according to New York’s state assessment office.
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