Obscenity Gets Into Texas 5th Graders' Tests

AUSTIN, TX — Texas Education Administration officials recently acknowledged a pejorative word starting with the letter "f" was inadvertently included in recently completed State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, standardized testing for students in primary and secondary schools.

This happened last month in the Lumberton ISD but details have only recently emerged, according to the Houston Chronicle. That's when a fifth-grade student alerted an administrator to the offensive term in an image on a question about graffiti written in small print.

Gretchen Scroggins, the Coordinator of Special Programs and communications at Lumberton ISD, told the newspaper that other students were exposed to the obscenity, as it was part of a field test question administered across Texas, which means an untold number of impressionable young people took the exam.

TEA officials declined to say if other students were exposed to the word, but issued a statement:

"A passage with embedded images of a graffiti park appeared as part of field testing for some fifth-grade Texas students. After the test was administered, TEA discovered that two of the included images contained vulgar words in very small lettering. This is in no way acceptable or appropriate, and we deeply regret that these images appeared on the test. We apologize to all our parents and students, and in the spirit of continuous improvement, we pledge to ensure this issue never occurs again."

Lumberton ISD also released a statement:

"During the 5th grade STAAR Reading exam, a student reported a vulgar word in a pictorial to the teacher administering the exam. The teacher reported the information to the campus testing coordinator, the principal was informed, the district testing coordinator received the report and ultimately the superintendent was notified. Dr. Chandler, LISD Superintendent, reported it to the Texas Education Agency (TEA)."

>>> Read the full story at Houston Chronicle