NJ parent expresses frustration over core testing

We've been talking about the upcoming PARCC testing in NJ schools and we received an email that exemplifies the frustration among parents.A father wrote us and sent us an email with a photo of a problem that his son was told was incorrect but was actually, right. The boy tried his answer again and the software told him he was incorrect.

Here's the email and photo we received:

I wanted to bring to your attention the issue my son had with his math assignment. He responded 3 times to the problem in the photograph attached with the answer 1 1/4. You can see the software responded that his answer was incorrect and it should be 1 2/8. I asked my son to bring it up to his teacher and she informed him not to reduce the answer unless they ask him to.
After hearing the teachers response I contacted the company that they had purchased the material from. They asked for the information in the email below to trouble shoot the issue. I called them, in India, and gave the the information. They informed me that I would need to contact the teacher to open the assignment again for them to trouble shoot it. I asked them if they developed the software and the person from India said that they did. I then asked if you developed the software have the photo of the screen with the URL the password and username why do they need the assignment reopened? They wrote and developed the software!
The whole thing stinks. I informed my son that his answer was correct and that he should continue to answer in the simplest form. This is why kids can't do math! The school system is failing our kids and we in the middle class are squeezed so hard with property taxes we can't afford private school. We really need school choice.

Listener Submission

Below are the father's email correspondence with software company:

--------------- Original Message ---------------

Sent: 1/23/2015 1:27 PM

To: techsupport@hmhpub.com

Subject: Fwd: K6.thinkcentral.com

Date: Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 11:35 AM

Subject: K6.thinkcentral.com

To Whom it May Concern:

I would like to bring to your attention an error in the answer checking of your software.

My son was doing the Chapter 6 Pre-Test and ran into an issue with the answer on question 10. He entered 1 1/4 for his answer and the program informed him he was wrong. He checked his response and tried again. The software again indicated his response was wrong. He asked me what he was doing wrong with the problem. We checked his work and it was correct so he tried again. The software informed him that he was out of retries and the answer was 1 2/8.

A photo of the screen is attached for reference.

Please let me know what will be done to correct this issue with the software.

Thank you,

Date: January 26, 2015 at 8:13:56 AM EST

Subject: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Dear XXXXXXX,

Thank you for your inquiry and for choosing Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for your software needs.

This is a follow up email in order to further troubleshoot this issue, please provide us with the following information.

1. Student username and password.

2. Title of the textbook.

3. Navigation steps.

4. Your callback number and the convenient time to reach you.

The case number for this contact is XXXXXXXX.

If we could be of further assistance, please contact Technical Support at

If you are an international customer, please contact Technical Support at

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Customer Experience - Technical Support

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

http://techsupport.hmhco.com <http://techsupport.hmhco.com/>

US - 800.323.9239 / International DID – (+1) 973.368.0392

When replying, please include all original text. This will assist us in responding quickly to your request.

--------------- Original Message ---------------

From:

Sent: 1/23/2015 5:03 PM

To:

Subject: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Dear XXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for your inquiry and for choosing Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for your software needs.

I understand that you are experiencing an issue with answer for chapter test on the ThinkCentral website.

I apologize for the inconvenience caused.

In order to further troubleshoot this issue, please provide us with the following information.