Company causing late FCAT grades in Florida has history of problems.

[madfloridian]

It's pretty rough to keep waiting on the test grades after all the pressure of taking them. School will be out, and districts waiting to plan the number of teachers for next year.

There is pressure on everyone..the teachers, the administrators, and the tension on the students must be terrible.

Company responsible for delay in FCAT scores has history of problems

The testing company responsible for the delayed release of this year's FCAT scores has a history of problems — in Florida and across the country. Now, Florida education leaders fear their planned rollout of a new computer-based testing system is in jeopardy because the company, Pearson, is not prepared.

Education Commissioner Eric Smith criticized Pearson in a recent letter for using an "untested" system for computer-based tests that the state plans to use in high schools next year.

The lack of a "proven" system created "unacceptable" problems for schools that tried out the new tests this spring, Smith said.

"The problems experienced by schools have created a lack of confidence in Pearson, our program, and computer-based testing in general. The product seems to be so new and untested that even Pearson staff cannot provide clear and reliable instructions for successful implementation," Smith wrote in his June 4 letter.

Other states that had problems.

In the last decade, the Iowa City-based firm had trouble in Wyoming, Minnesota and Virginia, among other states, in getting out results when promised, scoring exams accurately and delivering usable tests. Pearson was the company responsible for the 2005 mishap with the SAT, when thousands of college-bound students got mistakenly low scores. In 2000, it also was late returning FCAT scores and was slapped it with a $4 million fine.

And also Wyoming.

This spring, the Wyoming Department of Education also ran into problems with its computer-based tests developed by Pearson. They were so severe the state declared the entire assessment program "seriously compromised" and said it would seek more than $9 million in damages.

Nine million in damages?

Yet the company still gets to do business. The demand for accountability for teachers does not seem to carry over to the private sector.

This is THE TEST in Florida. A student's future basically depends on it. Looks like there could be accountability in grading. It should be an open process in which parents don't have to get legal counsel if there are questionable outcomes for their students.

Too much depends on this one test.

I wonder if a Maryland County will regret selling its esteemed education program to Pearson for short term gains.

Some may call Project North Star a pretty smart deal. I would use less flattering words to describe the deal into which Montgomery County Public Schools just entered with the world’s largest for-profit educational publishing company to nationally “brand” a newly created K-5 curriculum.

Under the arrangement, the school district will effectively turn its classrooms into Pearson Education Inc. showrooms, and sell to a private company the right to trade on the system’s high-achieving reputation, built over years with public funds, to enrich itself.

Other than that, there’s nothing wrong with the contract.

Oh, wait. Yes, there is.

Accountability is apparently necessary only for those at the teacher level.

[Starry Messenger]

1. The testing company must be non-union.

Only union employees get demonized by the specter of "failure".

[madfloridian]

2. I am hearing parents are very upset.

I know I would be. So much depends on these tests now. They grade teachers with the scores, though unofficially. They officially give schools a grade from A down...and it is published in the newspaper.

They can fire principals and teachers and close schools based on these grades.

[Angry Dragon]

3. I feel sorry for anyone having children or grandchildren

in school today.

It is .....we are turning our classrooms into factories. To hell with learning how to think, it is better to just roll them out on a conveyor belt and send them out into the world.

I call it the dumbing down of America and it will be just a part of the decline of this country.

[Dinger]

4. I'm Searching My Memory . . Isn't neil bu$h Involved in FCAT Tests? (nt)

[Hannah Bell]

6. like this?

Former Gov. Jeb Bush stands by FCAT and other education reform measures he pushed through the state Legislature during his 8 years in office.

That’s the gist of an interview with Bush that comes out this week in Education Next, an education journal put out by the conservative Hoover Institution. The influential Stanford University think tank is a big supporter of President Bush, and may have its eye on Jeb for a future in national politics – although a spokesman acknowledges the country is kind of bushed right now.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2007/05/jeb_stands_by_f.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8155764

[madfloridian]

8. Neil has a software program called Ignite.

Actually the program is called COW, I forget what it stands for. Many FL schools were pressured to buy the program.

[dsc]

5. we grade our own tests

and get them back the same day or at worst the next day. I am not sure how security works to be honest but it seems to and we get the results back fast.

[madfloridian]

7. We only touched the booklets when we passed them out under supervision.

There was an aide in each room, we had to get them from a locked room in the office each day from the asst. principal. We signed them out and in at lunch, and if there were an afternoon session the whole procedure again.

It took ages to find out the scores.

When I first started teaching they actually trusted us enough to make us spend hours grading the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. No overtime of course, and usually 40 students per class.

[dsc]

9. I should clarify

The tests are graded off site but by our school district. Thus I don't grade my tests but our district does grade our tests. I presume that there is a state person at the grading site who makes sure we don't cheat but I don't know that. My first year down here I actually ran my own tests to the board office to be graded since the AP left without them. But even then without the booklets I couldn't really do much.

[madfloridian]

11. When I first started teaching, we could take the tests home to grade.

Long time ago.

We had to sign them out and all, but there was no suspicion of cheating or anything like that.

Times have changed.

I think it is best to have them graded as you say by the district. All this proprietary test making and grading are like proprietary software when voting....hard to trust.

[newblewtoo]

10. When first retired

I worked part-time for a national scoring company. To those who have no idea what goes on on the scoring floor my I recommend "Making the Grades" by Todd Farley. This witty book is pretty much spot on based on my experiences. Many testing companies are foreign owned, not the one I worked for however. But a union? Nope. You would find yourself out on a windy if you even mentioned such a thing in the break room. Bennies? Not unless you brought your own!! Ergonomic working conditions? Think galley slave with a keyboard and monitor. Money? Well, if you want to make a small (very small) fortune. educational? Lets just say I learned lots about the Standardized Testing Industry. (I was qualified to score math, science, reading and writing so I was able to work whenever or whatever I wanted).