Friday, June 29, 2012

Pearson Spends “Hundreds of Thousands” to Influence Florida Politicians | Scathing Purple Musings

Pearson Spends “Hundreds of Thousands” to Influence Florida Politicians | Scathing Purple Musings:


Pearson Spends “Hundreds of Thousands” to Influence Florida Politicians

From WFTV and the work of investigative reporter George Spencer:
Despite scoring problems and student failures, the state is paying Pearson $249 million for five years of tests and grading. WFTV also found that Pearson spend hundreds of thousands to influence those same leaders.
“Public education is open for business. Whoever the best bidder is, you can come in and administer our test for us,” said parent Rebecca Newman. “It’s ridiculous!”
WFTV studied public records and discovered that since 2007, two years before getting its current 


National Association of Secondary Schools Principals Endorses Resolution on High Stakes Testing

The nation’s leading association of high school principals joined the growing movement to end the way the nation’s policy-makers are imposing crippling high-stakes tests regimes on the nation’s schools. Diane Ravitch spoke to the group before a nearly unanimous vote of support the National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing
Seventeen Florida school boards have adopted the measure with Hillsborough to make it 18 on July 17. The addition of the board which oversees Tampa schools is particularly noteworthy as it is where the much


Brevard School Board Joins Surge Opposing High-Stakes Tests

Reports Florida Today’s Mackenzie Ryan:
Brevard School Board members Thursday called on state leaders to overhaul a school accountability system that they say over- emphasizes and over-uses the FCAT as a measure of student, teacher, school and district performance. “It’s important to be accountable for student performance, it’s important to have standards. But it’s wrong to have one indicator be the Holy Grail,” School Board Member Andy Ziegler said. “Everything lives and dies by it.”
Thursday’s unanimous vote to approve a Florida School Boards Association resolution marks a