Pearson Says Its Tests Are ‘Valid and Reliable’
as Lehman Brothers
A national test publisher has defended a controversial question involving a talking pineapple on one of its reading tests for New York State, saying it was confident that its tests were “valid and reliable.”
In a letter to the State Education Department disclosed on Friday, the company, Pearson, said the passage about a pineapple that races a hare, included in a test administered to eighth graders, was to be used to compare the achievement of students in New York to those of students in other states.
The company said the question had been used in several other states without complaints. But Pearson did not mention that the question was mocked on a Facebook page established in 2010 and on a blog starting with a 2007 post from a parent in Illinois, who was soon joined by a long string of others in Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico and now, New York.
The company said it had been field-tested among students in New York and vetted by a local testing committee
In a letter to the State Education Department disclosed on Friday, the company, Pearson, said the passage about a pineapple that races a hare, included in a test administered to eighth graders, was to be used to compare the achievement of students in New York to those of students in other states.
The company said the question had been used in several other states without complaints. But Pearson did not mention that the question was mocked on a Facebook page established in 2010 and on a blog starting with a 2007 post from a parent in Illinois, who was soon joined by a long string of others in Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico and now, New York.
The company said it had been field-tested among students in New York and vetted by a local testing committee
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