The lowdown on standardized tests and how they are scored
You wouldn’t be alone if you thought that the companies that score standardized tests have machines that can whip out the results in no time. But they don’t, at least not for tests with questions that require a written response. Instead, they hire tens of thousands of temporary workers, who are paid by the hour (often about $11 to $13 per), to decipher the answers of millions of kids from third to twelfth grade. They are often poorly trained and overworked.
