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Skill: write-like-james @ 84b31cb

What to ask the TimeBack Scroll engineers (James, 30 Sep 2026)

One list, grouped by what it unblocks. The first group blocks the strand tests. The second blocks lessons shipping cleanly. The third is nice to have. Where our contract copy says a type does not exist, that copy may be stale: ask, do not assume.

A. Question types — blocks the end-of-strand tests

  1. Numeric entry. Is there a numeric-entry type (a child types a number, exact match, optional unit)? Our copy of the contract lists none. If not, does an AI-graded free-response item held to an exact accept list grade deterministically, every time?
  2. Multi-select. A "choose two" or "choose all that apply" MCQ, with partial credit (2 points, 1 for one right)? Alpha's Grade 3 test uses five of these per form.
  3. Two-part evidence items. Part A a claim, Part B the evidence. Can Part B be locked so it is shown only after Part A is answered, and can the pair be scored as one 2-point item or two 1-point items?
  4. Hot-text. Tap a word or sentence in a passage to answer. Alpha uses two per form. Yes or no?
  5. Drag to build a graph or table. Alpha's gap-match items. Yes or no? If no, does match-pairs or sort-into-categories cover it?
  6. Shared stimulus. Can two or three questions sit under one picture or short passage (a phenomenon cluster), shown together and in a fixed order?
  7. Two-option items. Does a two-answer cloze render as tap-one-of-two for a grade-3 reader, or should we send a two-option MCQ?

B. Test delivery — blocks the end-of-strand tests

  1. Fixed forms. Can Scroll serve a fixed 30-item form in one sitting, in a set order, with no hints, feedback or retries until the end?
  2. Retest from a bank. Can a retest draw a fresh form that excludes every item the child has already met?
  3. Pass bar and score. Can the pass mark be set per test (89.5 per cent of points) and can the score be points, not just item count?
  4. Timer. Is there a timer, and can it be off? Alpha's tests are untimed.
  5. Answer data. Do we get each child's item-level answers back, so missed items can be replayed with feedback and so we can run item analysis?
  6. Static test file format. Does a static form live in the protected bank format we already export, or in a different file?

C. Lessons — blocks a clean first upload

  1. Toggle. A student chooses video or article, then goes straight to the questions. Does a split article (video on reading 1, readings 2 onward text only) work as one toggle, or should the whole article be one row and the video another?
  2. The attached question. The easy question that closes each video becomes the first post-lesson question. Confirm the ordering is ours to set, row by row.
  3. Poll. Can the intro's poll row show with no right or wrong answer?
  4. Typed answers. Can the free-response grader be held to an exact accept list (413 typed items in the ledger today, each with article forms, plurals and child spellings)?

17b. Typed answers, spelling (James, 30 Sep 2026). Can the grader accept a near-miss of one or two characters and show a spelling message? Our review-site grader now marks a typed word within one edit of an accepted spelling (two edits for words of eight or more letters) as CORRECT and shows "It looks like you've got the correct answer: check the spelling. It's spelled thermometer." — never for numbers or words of three letters or fewer, never when the typing is as close to a different listed term. If Scroll's grader cannot do this, we pre-expand every accept list with the common misspellings (one deleted letter, one swapped pair, one vowel change) and lose the spelling message.

  1. Placeholder videos. A lesson row in text-only mode later flips to learner-choice and gains a file name. Confirm the row id survives and nothing a student has done is lost.
  2. Read-aloud. Is text-to-speech available on stems, options and article text at Grade 3?
  3. Images. File name limits, size limits, and whether alt text is shown or read aloud.

D. Housekeeping

  1. Ids. Free-form ids in our pattern (g3t21-l05-q03) are fine?
  2. Re-upload. When we fix a question after upload, does a re-upload of the same id replace it in place?
  3. Validator. Is validate_export.py the current contract, and where do we get updates to it?

What the answers change