Integrated Algebra – some scoring issues
This is a comment on the June 2008 New York State Integrated Algebra Regents Exam.
(I have stolen some of the best comments from other teachers)
(You’ll need a copy of the exam to follow along)
#31 – There are issues with kids not knowing the non-mathematical part. Evidence? An upstate district where the kids with snowmobiles could answer the mileage question, but the kids without could not. Ask for “lower” rather than “better” mileage, and most of that problem goes away.
#32 – just my problem. Why did so few of my kids leave their answers in terms of π? Why, if half the side of a square is 3, did they find an area of 81?
#34 – State says they lose two (of 3) points if they do not write 10 + 2d ≤ 75. But if they write 10 + 2d < 75, and equality is impossible? State says no. And if they wrote 10 + 2d = 75, solved, rounded to 33? Lose 2 of 3. I don’t agree.
#35 – State asked for the answer rounded to the nearest one hundredth of a percent (16.67%), but then why did they allow 
#36 – teachers are debating whether only -1 and 3 can be accepted, or if (0,-1) and (0,3) are okay (read them off the graph of a parabola). I don’t understand the need to penalize.
#37 – kids found perimeter instead of area, but, for example, on Long Island, bricks are placed around the edge of the driveway, not necessarily throughout. Word it better next time, folks.
#38 – OK, is the error significant or not? Answer, we don’t know enough context.
#39 – Find the mean, the median, and state which one is better. All Tuesday the State said if had to be the median. But today, just after we packed up, the State announced that the mean was okay, providing there was a strong justification. When we unpack the exams, we may be returning two of the four points here…
JD2718 
As an urban HS teacher, this curriculum was too rigorous for most students to do in one year. The test was fair in that it mirrored the sampler and curriculum but was poorly written on a number of problems. If it tests math it shouldn’t have to test language as well.
i.e. # 31 : assumes knowledge of the word mileage. would saying miles per gallon make it too easy ? Very few scored 2 points.
#32 : The logo also includes a shaded region, why not include the phrase ” and a shaded region” at the end of sentence two ?
# 36 : What does ” determine” mean ? What if you have a perfect graph without any numeric identification ? 1 or 2 points ?
-1 , 3 are fine as the roots are only the x values, I believe.
#37 : Be wary of contractors on Long Island. In all seriousness, perimeter is not expressed in square units anyway. I don’t have a big problem with this one.
#38: any reasonable answer for the last part should get credit even though there is a mathematical rule for significance.
( They really added a lot of the new stuff, and we shouldn’t have been surprised; otherwise why is it in the curriculum?)
#39: Should be only Median for last part; but maybe highest value should have been $1,000,000 for greater emphasis.
#32 – no big deal, but tend to agree
#36 – Rubric gives two points for a clean graph with no answer. Would have preferred a four point question for this one. Agree about the roots, but in my class I wouldn’t deduct for the points instead of the roots (I’d point it out, not deduct), why should we deduct here?
#37 – that’s a reading issue. If they want to test math, they need to be careful of stuff like that.
#38 – agree
#39 – The $400,000s were too high. Let them go down to $250,000 and there is no doubt.
We taught a straight up algebra course, and glommed on the probability and stats, etc. at the end. Worked, but these are above average kids.
what was my score on my test?
what was my test score? i thought the test wa very easy
I took that regents i got 61 on it im pissed i didnt learn that crappy mileage stuff i guess i also did perimeter because i didnt remember any area problems…
i got a 100 it was easy
hey i am in eight grade, i took it got an 81, its was pretty fair to me atleast i enjoyed the last part, or the last two parts rather. they were the easiest…