Weast's Contract Partner Pearson Education, Inc. in the News

As a follow up to the surprise Board of Education Agenda item selling the MCPS Logo to Pearson Education, Inc. on June 8, 2010, here is an article about Pearson Education, Inc. on today's Washington Post, The Answer Sheet blog:

The Answer Sheet: Standardized testing follies in Florida

Let’s add this to the list of reasons why standardized test results should not be considered for any high-stakes decision involving students, teachers, administrators, and well, everybody:

From the Miami Herald, we learn that NCS Pearson, part of the largest education company in the world, is having trouble scoring the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests...

...The paper cites the state Department of Education memos and South Florida school districts as reporting numerous problems with Pearson’s administration of the test:

• Pearson subcontractor failed to properly deliver testing materials to some schools.

• Pearson is weeks behind in delivering the bulk of student scores to local school districts. The state Department of Education said some of its student databases weren’t compatible with Pearson’s databases.

• Pearson had problems with test runs of the state’s new computerized end-of-year assessments; many kids who took part were kicked off the system or not allowed to log in.

The Herald said a Pearson spokesman could not be reached for comment. I asked Pearson for a comment and will add it when I hear from a company spokesman.

I have written frequently about the dangers of using standardized test results for any serious decision in education because of the many problems associated with their development, administration and scoring...

Full article here.