Post by Moses on Jun 8, 2005 8:53:43 GMT -5
Calculating student finds flaw
Texas Instruments is replacing about 160,000 school calculators in Virginia after an observant sixth-grader in Chesterfield County discovered a function that would have let students bypass a math skill required on standardized tests.
The state's education department asked Texas Instruments two years ago to disable the function that converts decimals to fractions because students are required to know how to do that with paper and pencil on Virginia's Standards of Learning tests. The company produced the TI-30 Xa SE VA (special-edition Virginia).
But in January -- before the next round of SOLs were administered -- Dakota Brown, a 12-year-old at Carver Middle School, figured out that by pressing two keys he could change decimals to fractions anyway.
Michael Bolling, instructional specialist for math in Chesterfield -- which had more than 11,000 of the calculators recalled -- said Dakota likely put a standard version of the calculator next to the school version "and used his problem-solving skills" to figure out the fraction function on the school-issued model.
"His fellow students were so proud of him and congratulatory," Bolling said. "They thought it was really, really cool."
Bolling said the sixth-grader alerted his teacher, who alerted Bolling, who alerted state officials. Texas Instruments then recalled 160,000 calculators statewide and is replacing them, a Department of Education spokesman said.
Brown and his parents could not be reached.
— Zinie Chen Sampson, Associated Press
Richmond Times-Dispatch
2005-06-08
Texas Instruments is replacing about 160,000 school calculators in Virginia after an observant sixth-grader in Chesterfield County discovered a function that would have let students bypass a math skill required on standardized tests.
The state's education department asked Texas Instruments two years ago to disable the function that converts decimals to fractions because students are required to know how to do that with paper and pencil on Virginia's Standards of Learning tests. The company produced the TI-30 Xa SE VA (special-edition Virginia).
But in January -- before the next round of SOLs were administered -- Dakota Brown, a 12-year-old at Carver Middle School, figured out that by pressing two keys he could change decimals to fractions anyway.
Michael Bolling, instructional specialist for math in Chesterfield -- which had more than 11,000 of the calculators recalled -- said Dakota likely put a standard version of the calculator next to the school version "and used his problem-solving skills" to figure out the fraction function on the school-issued model.
"His fellow students were so proud of him and congratulatory," Bolling said. "They thought it was really, really cool."
Bolling said the sixth-grader alerted his teacher, who alerted Bolling, who alerted state officials. Texas Instruments then recalled 160,000 calculators statewide and is replacing them, a Department of Education spokesman said.
Brown and his parents could not be reached.
— Zinie Chen Sampson, Associated Press
Richmond Times-Dispatch
2005-06-08