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Normally its the teachers who correct tests, but at East High School in Wichita, Kansas it was the other way around after a junior noticed a mistake on a state writing exam.
"One of the phrases was 'reduce the omission of greenhouse gasses'" said Geoffrey Stanford. "I looked at it and said 'that can't be right'."
It wasn't. The test was supposed to say 'reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses'. Stanford pointed the error out to his teacher while taking the state exam last week.
Last year the test was piloted in 50 schools and approved by a panel of more than 30 teachers. "She kind of laughed about it and so did I," said Stanford. "She made an announcement to the class and to the rest of her classes and took it to the state so they would know about it."
The Wichita Eagle caught wind of the story and printed it in their Thursday edition. Yahoo.com put a link to the Eagle on their front page. The story generated 4 million web hits.
Stanford said he's received e-mails and Facebook friend requests from all over the globe. "I never thought it would get this far," said Stanford. "After I told my teacher I thought it would die then."
