*For help with questions not addressed below, please call the Measurement Incorporated Grade 4 Math Helpline (877) 516-2403. The line is available weekdays May 13-29 from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

INTRODUCTION - After the live videotaping of the training sessions, the audience of Scoring Leaders participated in Question and Answer sessions. Staff from Measurement, Inc. and the State Education Department provided responses to participants' questions. The questions refer to particular student answer papers in the scoring materials. The following transcript places questions of a general nature first.

A: Videotapes have been provided to assist in training scoring leaders/scorers. The trainer discusses the contents of the Scoring Guide and the Practice Set. The Scoring Guide is presented first to demonstrate how the scoring rubric should be applied to student responses. We suggest that Training Leaders stop or pause the videotape before the videotaped trainer begins discussion of the Practice Set. This provides an opportunity for those being trained to read their Practice Sets and practice making scoring decisions.

We also suggest that scorers practice on only one or two student responses at a time, stopping and reviewing the correct score(s) before moving on to the next. The Scoring Leader may read and discuss the annotations in their copies of the Practice Sets, or may resume the videotape at appropriate intervals. Several short practice segments followed by review maximizes the opportunity to learn by doing and assists in building scorer skill and confidence.

A: Training procedures and the logistics of live scoring are covered in the Scoring Leader Handbook, which should be read thoroughly before training. You should also review your Scoring Guide and Practice Set while viewing the videotape.

• If the question does not specifically direct students to show their work, teachers may not score any work that the student writes.
• If the question requires students to show their work and a student shows appropriate work and identifies a correct answer but fails to write that answer in the answer blank provided, the student should receive full credit.
• If the question requires students to show their work and a student shows appropriate work and arrives at the correct answer, but writes an incorrect answer in the answer blank, the student should not receive full credit.

A: For the response to receive a score point of 1, both a sign and numeric answer must be correct. The four signs are given in the item, so just one sign without any indication that the student understands the correct procedure is not a sufficient demonstration of partial understanding.

A: Any time the student leaves the answer space blank, but has the correct answer with appropriate work on the page credit is given. However if the student gives an incorrect answer in the space provided, even if you can see the correct work done, the incorrect response must be considered and full credit cannot be given.

A: We are accepting either type as correct; many math books at this level are using both types of graphs interchangeably. Please note that the Complete and Correct response indicates that other valid graphs are acceptable.

A: Yes, based on the conditions seen in this example (48b), only 1 or 2 correct numbers in Part A will not achieve a score point 1. This does not demonstrate sufficient understanding on the student’s part.

For further information regarding assessment issues please consult the Grade 4 and 8 Mathematics School Administrators Manual, page vi, Important Notes (www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/assess.html ).

Updates on mathematics education in NYS are posted on the Office of Curriculum and Instruction's mathematics web site at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/mst/math.html.