Statement From Education Commissioner John B. King On The Hare And The Pineapple

First of all, the "passage" printed in the media is not complete. Although the questions make more sense in the context of the full passage, due to the ambiguous nature of the test questions the Department has decided it will not be counted against students in their scores.

It is important to note that this test section does not incorporate the Common Core and other improvements to test quality currently underway.  This year’s tests incorporate a small number of Common Core field test questions. Next year’s test will be fully aligned with the Common Core.

This particular passage, like all test questions, was reviewed by a committee comprised of teachers from across the state, but it was not crafted for New York State.  It’s a passage that has been used in other states and was included by Pearson Inc., the test vendor, to provide a comparison between New York students and students from other states.1  The passage and related questions are not reflective of the precision of the entire exam. 

The accuracy and efficacy of our state assessments are crucial to our reform efforts and measuring student academic growth.  We will, as always, review and analyze all questions on every assessment we administer.