Martin Swaden, a lawyer from Mendota Heights, MN was
concerned because his daughter Sydney had failed the math portion of the
Minnesota Basic Standards Tests. Sydney was a sophomore who found math
difficult; she’d failed this test before. This time, she’d failed by a single
answer. Thinking he could help his daughter focus her studies, Martin asked to
see his daughter’s test papers. State education officials denied his request
and told him simply to have his daughter study harder for next year’s exam. After
Martin threatened to sue, he was finally allowed to see the questions and
Sydney’s answers. Question #41 showed a rail fence and asked which parts were
parallel. Sydney chose two horizontal rails, but was marked wrong. Martin
discovered six of the 68 questions in the test were scored wrong – not just for
his daughter. Math scores for 45,739 students were incorrect. 7,935 students
were told they’d failed when they’d actually passed.
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