When I read Gail Collins’ nifty column about the pineapple fiasco, I realized why New York ended up using a ridiculous story that was recycled from tests given in several other states. Wherever that pineapple story appeared on the state tests, the kids said it was a stupid story with stupid questions. Pearson didn’t listen and didn’t care. They just sent it on to the next state test. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/28/opinion/collins-a-very-pricey-pineapple.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general).
New York got the pineapple story because NY is paying Pearson only $32 million for five years of tests. Texas is paying Pearson $500 million for five years of tests. That means that Texas gets the shiny, new questions–the ones that make sense-and NY gets the recycled remainders, the ones that no one else wanted
You get what you pay for.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
8th grade students here in Texas took the reading test back in March. No wonder we didn’t hear any of them complain about the stupid pineapple story; evidently it wasn’t on our test. I’ll bet our tests were so much better because we gave Pearson more money. Sorry about dumping that junky old second-hand story on y’all. And by the way, LOVE the new blog. So glad you’re writing more. It’s hard to shut off the anger that is generated by standardized testing. I have 2 kids in public school and I’m mad about it damn near everyday and I’m going to stay mad until something is done to stop it.
Reblogged this on School Refresh and commented:
Wal-Mart and Macy’s.
[…] New York’s Bargain Basement Tests, Diane Ravitch, Diane Ravitch’s blog, April 28, […]
[…] Diane Ravitch argues that New York’s tests are bad because the spends too little on them. (DR’s Blog) […]
Good grief! What a misreading of what I wrote with my tongue in cheek. These tests are not worth $32 million or $500 million or $1 billion, or for that matter, $1.98.
If we paid more, we might be the first state to get the Pineapple story, instead of the seventh or eighth.
But if I may be clear, I don’t like the idea that Pearson is the sole supplier of almost everything educational in the State of New York, Texas, Florida and many other places.
Tests should be used appropriately for diagnostic and informational purposes, not to evaluate teachers, hold kids back, and close schools.
Every test publisher used to append that warning to their tests.
Does Pearson?
Diane
This just in: GothamSchools spent too much time testing and couldn’t think out of that box. Forgive him. For he is the product of the cult of excessive testing and “accountability”. 😉 Thanks for your much needed voice Diane.
Privitization at its best.
Pearson also grades the exams in Texas, quite expensive, in NYS teachers are removed from class to grade exams and the kids lose instructional time and the schools pay for the cost of subs. Of course we could send them to India, the call centers can grade them during down time.
Fred Smith explained it best last week… Pearson’s stranglehold on testing; the re-packaging of used items; the pineapple fiasco; flawed field testing procedures; the cozy self-perpetuating relationship between test vendor and client (state education department).
To understand the picture read his article on Valerie Strauss’ blog, the Answer Sheet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/pearson-and-how-2012-standardized-tests-were-designed/2012/04/27/gIQAjQ0MkT_blog.html#pagebreak
Absolutely correct. NY is trying to do testing on the cheap and it shows. Same for grading the tests and security of the testing process. Whether you feel that tests should be designed to just diagnose students to give them help, or be used for more destructive ends, shouldn’t they be the BEST tests?
[…] answer, and gaffes galore all by a company on a $32 million contract with the state of New York (which apparently is a deal considering Texas pays Pearson $500 million to write their tests), you have to wonder why our education system holds these tests up as the end all be […]
[…] Diane Ravitch wrote on her new blog that New York’s standardized tests had so many mistakes because the State spent much less on exams than other states:https://dianeravitch.net/2012/04/28/new-yorks-bargain-basement-tests/ […]
Perhaps the Indian call centers would do a better job scoring tests than those scorers employed by Pearson! When doing state test preps for 7th Grade, my colleagues & I would read the sample reading comprehension long-form answers. In astonishment, we would say things like, “How did THIS answer earn a 6 (highest score on the rubric), while this one received a 3?” Not a one of us thought the scoring made any sense whatsoever. Then I read Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry by Todd Farley (2009, PoliPointPress, $16.95). It confirmed my worst fears: people scoring writing tests whose first language wasn’t English, thus not understanding vernacular; disgruntled, fired-from-another-job-or-laid-off people scoring tests who were angry, bored, & had no understanding of the task; people who would over-analyze 4th graders’ answers…in other words, people like the people I worked with when I was in high school, selling newspaper subscriptions over the phone.
Additionally, consider his description of one state D.o.E. representative, checking in:
Her rubric was producing an astounding number of 2’s…nearly 70%
of all the scores we had given were 2’s, a number Roseanne viewed
with horror.
“There are 67% 2’s!” she screamed in Maria’s office. “Oh, my God!”
…ultimately she came up with a simple solution.
“Give more 3’s,” she told Maria to tell us. “Just give more 3’s.”
This book is required reading for anyone who wants to save public education.