Top 12 Testing Snafus
The current delay scoring New York City students’ Regents exams is just the latest mess-up in an industry with a history of high-profile flubs.
It’s not even the biggest testing mistake in the city this year. In April, the Department of Education announced, about 2,700 city students were wrongly told they weren’t eligible for the Gifted & Talented program because of problems with the test.
And high-profile testing errors haven’t been limited to New York over the years. In Minnesota, some high school seniors missed out on their graduation ceremonies because scoring errors made it look like they’d failed. In Indiana, server crashes and technology glitches delayed tests for students three years in a row.
In Washington State, a testing company had to re-score 204,000 exams because of scoring errors.
The problems have plagued the testing industry over the past 15 years as states increasingly relied on high-stakes standardized tests to gage student performance and make decisions such as graduation eligibility and school funding.
The testing industry swelled after the No Child Left Behind Act required all states to measure performance with standardized exams. In their defense, industry officials say some mistakes are inevitable, especially during a time of tremendous growth.
WNYC, with the help of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, compiled a list of the top 12 testing company errors since 1999. If you know of any others worth mentioning, let us know about them in the comments section below.
2013 — The testing company Pearson made several errors scoring the tests 36,000 New York City students took to get into a Gifted and Talented program. As a result of the mistake, almost 3,000 city students were wrongly told they didn’t qualify for the programs.
2013 — Nearly 80,000 Indiana students faced interruptions and delays taking their tests after the testing
It’s not even the biggest testing mistake in the city this year. In April, the Department of Education announced, about 2,700 city students were wrongly told they weren’t eligible for the Gifted & Talented program because of problems with the test.
And high-profile testing errors haven’t been limited to New York over the years. In Minnesota, some high school seniors missed out on their graduation ceremonies because scoring errors made it look like they’d failed. In Indiana, server crashes and technology glitches delayed tests for students three years in a row.
In Washington State, a testing company had to re-score 204,000 exams because of scoring errors.
The problems have plagued the testing industry over the past 15 years as states increasingly relied on high-stakes standardized tests to gage student performance and make decisions such as graduation eligibility and school funding.
The testing industry swelled after the No Child Left Behind Act required all states to measure performance with standardized exams. In their defense, industry officials say some mistakes are inevitable, especially during a time of tremendous growth.
WNYC, with the help of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, compiled a list of the top 12 testing company errors since 1999. If you know of any others worth mentioning, let us know about them in the comments section below.
2013 — The testing company Pearson made several errors scoring the tests 36,000 New York City students took to get into a Gifted and Talented program. As a result of the mistake, almost 3,000 city students were wrongly told they didn’t qualify for the programs.
2013 — Nearly 80,000 Indiana students faced interruptions and delays taking their tests after the testing
