PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Does the NECAP test get easier the more times you take it?
That's what Eva Marie Mancuso, chairwoman of the Rhode Island Board of Education, said earlier this month.
Rhode Island high school students must pass -- or at least show improvement on -- the New England Common Assessment Program test to graduate.
Mancuso was asked about that requirement on the WPRI-TV program "Newsmakers."
She said it was important to note that "the second and third NECAP test that's given is not the same NECAP test that they're given originally. . . . You know those really hard questions that are on the front page of the paper that we all look at and say, 'Oh my goodness, how could anybody pass these?' Those are there to weed out and to show what our excellent students are doing. So when the test is re-given to the kids the second and third time, those [harder] questions are taken out."
PolitiFact Rhode Island examined her claim and ruled it Half True. Read the complete analysis here.