State Switches Testing Firms In $32 Million Contract To Devise New Exams

New York Post:

The state has hired a different testing company to produce its standardized exams for grades 3 through 8, replacing a firm whose too-easy tests led to massive grade inflation.

The state Education Department has awarded Pearson a $32.1 million contract to devise the math and English language arts exams, officials said.

Read the whole story

Comments

[Hlynn]

10:17 PM on 07/25/2011

This is so bizarre! NCLB dictates that all students must be "proficient" in grade level reading and math by 2014. (Forget for a while that it is an impossible mandate given all the students with disabilities and other variables.) Then, not enough students pass so teachers are fired, schools are taken over, and are put under new management (i.e. investors looking to make a profit). However, when too many students pass the tests are deemed "too easy" so millions are spent for new tests, with a new company, with new criteria.

If too few students pass, that's bad. If too many students pass--even though NCLB states they all must pass--that's also bad.

What!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[Jenn May]

07:02 PM on 07/25/2011

What a waste of money... For all the people who complain about teacher salaries and benefits being "lavish" and taking away from the kids in the classroom... you need to look into how much this inaccurate and poor tests are costing. Most those horrible teachers could come up with tests far better than these, and would do it for a fraction of the price. Ridiculous that this is what we have come to...

[oscartucker]

09:27 AM on 07/26/2011

It's interesting too how school systems will bring in a "consultant" who knows what's best for a school system or district which they have never heard of nor visited until they received the call. Those "experts" recieve big $$$$$ to come in and try to tell teachers who have been in the trenches what they, the teachers, already know. The teachers could organize their own consulting session, and would be glad to do so for the price of some supplies for their students.

[Allthosewhowander]

06:07 PM on 07/25/2011

Changing the testing companies, with little or no attention given to the broken system that is in dire need of sweeping changes, just shows further how little priority is placed on actual student learning, and authentic instruction. $32 million given to a company that does not care or have any buy in to quality of instruction, school and neighborhood environment, or community involvement in schools is ridiculous. I guess we know who is really in charge of where the education money is going. These companies are only too happy to let teachers be thrown under the bus and vilified by media, while they are accountable for nothing, even remotely, connected to classroom instruction.

[Ytrus]

03:43 PM on 07/25/2011

Exams are supposed to be a metric, they're not supposed to be the goal. If students are only learning how to do exams then they are completely worthless human beings.

[writersbloc]

03:14 AM on 07/26/2011

"Exams are the metric, not the goal." That's nice.

The graphic of Angry Birds is kind of funny. Back in the day, the examples were more general like throwing a ball or the old 'two trains leave the station...' How times have changed.

[TINA ANDRES]

03:28 PM on 07/25/2011

How about getting rid of the 32 Million Dollar cost altogether and apply it to overcrowded classrooms. Just a pet peeve.

Anyway, in California the tests become more and more convoluted every year. The testing company finds questions that "too many" (whatever that means) kids get right and deem them too easy. They replace them with questions that are so wordy that it is difficult for a child to figure out what the question is even asking. Instead of asking kids to find circumference or area of a circle, they make them read stories about loggers cutting logs of certain dimensions and then ask a question completely irrelevant to anything a logger would ever need to know. As if the ELL kids even know what a logger is.

[LATEACHER1X]

02:38 PM on 07/25/2011

Hah! This isn't about education, it's about $32 million.

[Hlynn]

10:11 PM on 07/25/2011

Right. "Pearson offered the best value" really means they were the cheapest, not the best.

[ian0000]

12:50 PM on 07/25/2011

american standardized tests are a joke. the s.a.t. math test is a disgrace . i have a friend who migrated from s.korea when she was 10 and took the s.a.t. at that age as a joke but got 800 on the math portion. in australia , where i grew up you can't graduate high school until you pass calculus .

[Ghoulish]

02:40 PM on 07/25/2011

Your last sentence is what really summed up one of the (many) problems with education in America. The responsibility in Australia to pass Calculus is up to the student. In America, students have to be taught how to pass Calculus. It's a subtle difference, but an important one.

[writersbloc]

03:19 AM on 07/26/2011

Yeah I know a lot of South K's who are excellent at math. Their technique is repitition for one, and or threat of humiliation and violence from either parents and/or teachers, though I hear that's falling out of favor. The other is a social constraint. Failure to get into the best college like Seoul National University or Ewha Women's University relegates you to the social fringe.

That's one reason many are coming to the US for college. If you end up at poor old UCLA instead of Harvard, no one's really gonna bat an eyelash.

[Hlynn]

12:33 PM on 07/25/2011

Pearson does the tests for our state. Some of the items they've chosen are nonsensical. We can find mistakes in every one of their tests. And, they print out vocabulary sheets students can keep with them during the tests because we (the teachers) never know what the test items will cover and they may or may not be aligned with the state standards, including the terms used in the test items.

Also, for people who continue to complain about how much educations costs used to be and how much they are now, you can blame special ed costs and all the money that goes to testing companies. Tests used to come from teachers' editions of the subjects taught and what teachers made from was was taught, but now professional testing companies rake in many millions of dollars from each state to provide high stakes state tests.

[sawyer0413]

11:26 AM on 07/25/2011

How interesting. When a test is "too easy", it results in grade inflation. So the obvious response is to toughen the test. Why? Is it because we are short-changing our children? I think not. If the test is harder, we are harming our children in the opposite direction. We are telling them that despite their hard efforts that they have done poorly. Besides, any test is subjective.

I think this has little to do with the students. It has everything to do with money, as in bonuses. A test is judged to be "too easy" when it requires the school system to pay out more money in bonuses. So hiring a company that is late reporting results (as noted in Florida and California) is completely consistent. Not only do you have to pay out less bonuses, but you also get to keep the money longer before paying it out.

It is definitely one of those things that make you go ... Hmmmmm