Must read indictment of the standardized testing industry

[erodriguez]

This article really got my blood boiling. To think that student promotion and teachers' livelihoods are in the hands of low paid temps that glance over 200 essays a day is a fucking insult.


Eventually, DiMaggio got used to not asking questions. He got used to skimming the essays as fast as possible, glancing over the responses for about two minutes apiece before clicking a score.

Every so often, though, his thoughts would drift to the school in Arkansas or Ohio or Pennsylvania. If they only knew what was going on behind the scenes.

"The legitimacy of testing is being taken for granted," he says. "It's a farce."


Farley now understood the reasons why, when he'd been a scorer, his team leaders would tell the room he wanted to start seeing more 3s or 4s or whatever. Supervisors were expected to turn the test scores into a nice bell curve. If his room did not agree at least 80 percent of the time, the tests would be taken back and re-graded, wasting time and money. The supervisor would be put on probation or demoted.


http://www.citypages.com/2011-02-23/news/inside-the-multimillion-dollar-essay-scoring-business/

[Starry Messenger]

1. k&r

His book is scary too. I have to keep taking breaks out of disgust, though usually I'm a quick reader.

[snagglepuss]

2. K & R nt

[msongs]

3. constant testing in California costs tons of $$..even the severely handicap kids have a standardized

test though they cannot read, write, talk, or sometimes even hear

[mia]

4. Thanks for posting this. I agree with you. n/t

[LiberalAndProud]

5. It was the beginning of privatization, wasn't it?

It would seem that the testing companies have their hands the lifeline of our public education system. Scary thought.

[Starry Messenger]

6. k

[csziggy]

7. Spending billions on testing but not on education

"The amount of testing that was being done mushroomed," says Kathy Mickey, a senior education analyst at Simba Information. "Every state had new contracts. There was a lot of spending."

The companies that create and score tests saw profits skyrocket. In 2009, K-12 testing was estimated to be a $2.7 billion industry.

From the OP link, emphasis added.

No wonder we are spending so much on education and children are not learning more.