Pearson flubs test scoring for gifted-and-talented programs
Pearson, the world’s largest education company, was just forced to apologize for making errors in its scoring of assessments for entry into gifted-and-talented programs in New York City public schools.Sound familiar? The part about Pearsonerring should. It keeps happening.
In 2010, for example, six of Florida’s largest school districts formally complained to state officials about problems with scores of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests and have asked the state to delay releasing grades given to schools based on the scores from Pearson. Not long after, problems were flagged in Minnesota, where results for the science standardized test were released late because Pearson incorrectly scored two questions on the fifth- and eighth-grade tests. Last year, there was the famous New York “talking pineapple scandal,” involving a story about a talking pineapple that made no sense. The test question was thrown out.
Those are just a few of the examples of problems that have been found over the years with tests designed by Pearson.
In the latest instance in New York, scoring errors cut out some children who had qualified for city gifted programs and let in some who did not. Given that the company has a $32 million contract with the city for these tests,
