Chicago school Inspector General: testing company conduct “egregious”
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Pearson, two national testing giants, have been charged with “serious ethical problems” in their dealings with the Chicago Public Schools in the 2012 Chicago Public Schools Office of the Inspector General’s report.The OIG report refers to them as Vendor A and Vendor B but the Tribune has identified A as HMH and B as Pearson.
The OIG calls HMH’s conduct “egregious” and recommended “significant sanctions… ranging from a large fine to some term of debarment” or, essentially, firing:
In almost any other case involving such blatant attempts to influence a CPS employee with valuable benefits and subvert CPS’s ethical guidelines, the OIG would recommend permanent debarment. The OIG, however, recognized that given its large role in providing educational materials, debarring Vendor A could potentially do more harm than good by limiting the scope of educational materials available to CPS classrooms and/or limiting competition, which in turn could