Pearson Botches Mississippi Testing [Again]; Mississippi Immediately Severs Contract
Education and testing mammoth Pearson has an established history in botchinghigh-stakes testing.
Pearson did it again, in Mississippi.
According to the Associated Press (AP), Mississippi canceled its contract with the testing giant after Pearson fessed up to mixing up scoring tables for an exam that now has approximately 1,000 Mississippi students either graduating when exit scores were not actually high enough or not graduating because of test scores that were not too low after all.
From AP on Friday, June 16, 2017:
The Mississippi Department of Education is firing a testing company, saying scoring errors raise questions about the graduation status of nearly 1,000 students statewide.The state Board of Education revoked a contract with NCS Pearson in closed session Friday, after the Pearson PLC unit told officials it used the wrong table to score U.S. history exams for students on track to graduate this spring. Students who did poorly got overly high scores, while those who did better didn’t get enough credit.Associate Superintendent Paula Vanderford says it’s too soon to know how many students may have graduated or been denied diplomas in error, or what the state will do about either circumstance.
The AP release continues with an inept-yet-contrite Pearson will “assist the state in Pearson Botches Mississippi Testing [Again]; Mississippi Immediately Severs Contract | deutsch29: