How Many Mistakes Does Pearson Get To Make?

Another round of Pearson errors on the grading on the G&T tests were revealed yesterday.

This time 146 more students were found to qualify for G&T programs after Pearson said they weren't.  Another 159 saw their raw scores on the test rise.

Last month, an additional 3,000 students were also told they qualify for one of the G&T programs after they had been told they weren't.

These errors come on the heels of the product placements in the 3rd-8th grade ELA tests and last year's Hare and the Pineapple debacle.

As usual, Pearson was sorry:

A spokeswoman for the testing company said the unforgivable blooper won’t happen again.

“There’s no excuse for the scoring errors made on the assessments,” Scott Smith, president of learning assessment, said. “Pearson is taking all necessary measures to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

That's what they said after the first round of G&T test errors were revealed. 

 

They even said they conducted quality assurance tests on the testing procedures to make sure no more mistakes had been made.

 

But more mistakes were found.

 

Clearly Pearson cannot be trusted to police itself.

 

The NYCDOE is threatening to break the G&T test contract with Pearson if they don't shape up, but they say they will keep their other contracts with Pearson no matter what.

And of course Merryl Tisch is oh so happy with the Pearson tests at the state level that she positively gushed over them a couple of weeks ago, though since the test contents have been kept secret, we can't know just how many mistakes Pearson has made with these tests.

Given Pearson's track record and the anecdotes that have gone around about these tests so far, we can be pretty sure they have made mistakes.

 

Two things must happen now.

 

First, Merryl Tisch and John King must be forced to reveal the full contents of the 3rd-8th grade math and ELA tests before these tests are used to make any high stakes decisions on children, teachers and schools.

Second, Pearson must be held accountable for their repeated mistakes and incompetency.  

 

At the city level, they must lose the G&T test contract immediately, their other contracts ought to be terminated or, at the very least, not renewed.

At the state level, every test Pearson develops or handles can no longer be embargoed by the NYSED.  The contents MUST be open for parents, teachers and administrators to view once the test is administered.

If Tisch and King will not comply with this very reasonable request, then they must be forced to do so through the courts.

 

Then the rest of the contract with the state must be voided and the NYSED and Regents must look elsewhere for a testing vendor.

Pearson has no credibility as a testing company and cannot be trusted.

As Christine Quinn said yesterday:

“Students know that there are consequences when you make repeated mistakes and it’s time Pearson learns that same lesson,” the Democratic candidate said.

“The fact that Pearson has again failed to properly score the city’s gifted and talented tests and even more egregiously, lied about conducting quality assurance checks when correcting their first error, is totally unacceptable,” Quinn added. “Any confidence city families had in Pearson has been irreparably damaged, and I urge the New York State Department of Education to learn from DOE’s experience, vet every stage of Pearson’s scoring of the state exams and carefully reconsider whether Pearson should be trusted with future state testing.”

 

Indeed.