Pearson has a long history of errors in its textbooks and tests. Sarah Blaine, a parent and lawyer in New Jersey, discovered an error in a textbook and a Pearson representative apologized and promised to correct the error in future editions.
What if this had happened on a high-stakes test, Blaine wondered. Children would puzzle over the choice of answers and lose time on a timed test. They would lose points for choosing the correct answer. Suppose Pearson refuses to release the test questions–which is now its protocol–and no one finds out that the question is absurd (remember “The Pineapple and the Hare” question?), or the language was confusing, or the answer was just plain wrong. No one will know if there is no transparency. That is why parents must continue to insist that the tests be released for public review after they are administered. And that is why parents should show their opposition to this secretiveness by refusing to let their children take the tests.
If a large corporation is going to have the power to judge the child’s worthiness, parents and teachers should have the right to check the worthiness and accuracy of the testing instrument and catch errors. No one can catch errors if the tests are not made available for public review.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
nice……….. I do not think we will find someone here from apologizes
The large corporation should NOT have the right to judge a child’s worthiness. That is the job of the teacher, the school, and the parents. The politicians and educrats are selling our children to the corporations. These people should beg for forgiveness for doing such a heinous thing, and their intentions are NOT relevant.
It is absolutely necessary to provide validity and reliability data regarding standardized tests. Researchers rely on these data; educators rely on these data; and test errors can be reduced. Without transparency we cannot trust test results. This can be accomplished while still providing confidential testing. For example, multiple forms of the test can be use, random ordering of questions can occur, etc. The fact that Pearson will not allow external reviews of their tests means that Pearson is unwilling to undergo this absolutely critical step. What if drug companies were unwilling to allow their drugs to be tested? They could not be trusted.
Based on feedback from students who have taken the test and teachers who have peeked they have already bungled some questions and answers.
I have heard that Pearson has asked for readers and they specifically have requested help from teachers at the low end of the paying spectrum. Is it because they want to work only with new teachers who need their jobs? How could they think we would not figure out this gimmick?
For this reason Senator Lamar Alexander and another Democratic Senator have put forth a bill to curtail the whole program and return power back to the States. If power is returned to the states then it will be easier for parents and teachers to take on these larger powers because it will be in their backyard as opposed to Washington D.C. We need to see this bill pass. Call your legislators.
It is absolutely twisted how the publishing business is manipulating those in charge of our schools. Absolutely twisted!!
I could not agree more with the sentiment that kids, parents, and teachers must be able to review the full tests and learn what the correct answers are. It is also unfair to kids that there are so many field questions embedded in each exam. Field testing needs to be done as a completely separate operation, and it should be a requirement that schools are compensated (technology grants/upgrades) for participating.
It will likely cost a lot more to create tests under these parameters, but it will be well worth it.
WaPo already wrote an article about the mistakes:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/bThlogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/05/06/a-history-of-pearsons-testing-problems-worldwide/
It is TIME for the unions to tell the testing companies they need to provide proctors for these exams. This will eat into their profits. When teachers are threatened with criminal penalty for even discussing these tests, it is time for someone else to administer them.
Teachers can be inserviced while the tests are being administered.
If I am force fed any more professional development, I am going to throw up.
As far as the writing of test questions go, If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BS. That approach seems to be working, and wasting educational time and money.
The British are coming! The British are coming!
Funny, Pearson can apologize and NOT be put in jail.
It seems like PARCC and Smarter Balanced should address these issues. The public is paying both the contractor and the quasi-governmental organizations. They have CEO’s and staff.
I suppose one could go directly to the commercial contractor and hope to persuade them to voluntarily change their business model, but if we have to do that why do we need the testing organizations?
I don’t know:is this distinction just completely meaningless? It is presented to the public as if the contractor and the consortium are separate. .
“The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a group of states working together to develop a set of assessments that measure whether students are on track to be successful in college and their careers.”
That made me giggle. I had this vision of Pearson in jail. With the Supreme Court telling us that corporations are like individuals and have the same rights as individuals, then by extension they should have the same responsibility as a individuals and pay the penalties as a individuals. How do you put a corporation in jail for fraud? This is what the industry is perpetuating. Would be nice though. I would like the Court answer how a cooperation meets the standard of individual responsibility with corporate standards. Corporations are not individuals.
The testing companies think errors are just part of the cost of doing business, so are the computer “glitches, so are the very poor quality of tests in combination with massive surveillance systems to protect the “integrity” of the tests–basically the test as intellectual property.
FairTest does a remarkable job of documenting the errors, glitches and the fraud of this unregulated industry.
The big companies spend millions on lobbying against student privacy and to keep tests embedded in every policy they can. Many of the big testing companies are supported by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and organization supported by conservatives and businesses. ALEC provides ready-to use legislation to states, much of this to guarantee that teachers and schools are rated by test scores of students.
The few non-profits involved in testing have mastered the game of paying their CEOs $1 million or more and employing staff to solicit contracts from anyone with money to pay the bill. ETS is one of these. ETS is also the organization that advised SBAC test developers to eliminate items dealing with global warming and evolution on the grounds that this “editing” would eliminate bias in tests.
Then there is AIR—the American Institutes of Research—a holding company for many forms of “talent,” some of it in educational testing. AIR ended up in a court battle with Pearson/PARCC over a no-bid multi-year, multi-state contract reputedly worth around $1 billion.
In April 24, 2014 press release, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) announced it will acquire Educational Technology and Services (EdTech) one branch of Scholastic Corporation, for about $575 million in cash. HMH is a major testing and text publishing company. It wants more sales in “intervention curriculum and services,” educational technology, early learning, and other education services. Part of the deal included Scholastic’s preschool program and assessments. “Intervention” is code for programs offered to students whose scores on tests are not up to grade level. The interventions typically are designed for student learning English, those in special education plans, and children who for many reasons are not performing “at or above” grade level.This deal is one of other intended to capture preschool as a market for tech and online testing.
For a great report on the wheeling and dealing in the testing industry see http://www.prwatch.org/files/updated_03-30-15_pearson_ets_houghton_mifflin_and_mcgraw-hill_lobby_big_and_profit_bigger.pdf
Thank you for posting this, Diane!
Local “standardized” tests aren’t much better. My district is insisting that social studies teachers give eight standardized tests a year–all essay-type questions. We teachers got the questions last fall. They are AWFUL. The maps used in the tests have no context. For example, the map of the Caribbean Islands do not show Florida, Central America, or South America. When I brought that concern up to the writers, I was told that freshmen “should be able to work with maps without context.” There are so many grammar and spelling errors that I’m embarrassed to give them to my students. And the answer rubrics? When giving the answer about dietary laws in various religions, the only thing the rubric said for Judaism was, “no pork.”
Yes, there should have been better proof reading. However, I cannot tell you how many errors that I have found in textbooks (Pearson, non-Pearson, etc) throughout my times as a high school student, a college student and as a teacher. My issue with the posting isn’t the fact that a mistake was made, but rather that to me the issue is magnified because of the company. Would the post even be written if it wasn’t Pearson? As for what occurs if this happened on a high stakes test…well, it would take lots of hours and people power to get the problem changed…I am sure that throughout the history of “high stake tests” (including bar exams, SAT tests, etc) that there have been errors. Just like in the history of textbooks there have been errors..
The problem is that we have NO IDEA if there are errors because we can’t see the tests. For all we know, the entire test could be nonsensical or have no correct answers at all. In my state, we have NEVER had a released exam. For the newest tests, a group of 15 parents got to see and sort of “sign off” on the testing, but they can’t say anything. We teachers are threatened if we even LOOK at the test
I chose to opt out for my son’s entire time in public school. Despite living in Berkeley, CA, home to the 2nd largest PhD per capita population in the country, I was the sole person to read the literature on the devastating effects of high-stakes testing + my son sat out alone. His first standardized test was the SAT-he did fine, got into all colleges he applied. Parents should release their fear + let their kids be kids. My 20 year old remains a flexible-thinking super player-like his 3 yo self. It serves him better than anything.
They also include odd propaganda about their political views .
And as a parent it would be nice to be aware of and oppose the product placement.
Pearson messed up badly in Minnesota this week. Screens froze. Students were booted out in the middle of the test. It was very difficult for many schools to log into Pearson. An exciting educator/parent/union/district/charter coalition is developing to challenge Pearson.
Some of this is described here, based on comments from 40 educators all over the state.
http://hometownsource.com/2015/04/22/joe-nathan-column-pearson-should-pay-for-mca-testing-problems/
Joe – I did some back reading and saw that yes, a Pearson server was attacked and had way too much heavy traffic which seems to have caused this issue. And yes, I agree that any company (whether Pearson or others) should have been prepared for these issues. However, these are all implementation issues. This article on Pearson having a wrong answer in a textbook does not equate with the issues that they had in implementing their testing. I cannot think of any one policy that has not had any implementation issues at all (it’s why in ed policy the “implementation gap” exists as the difference between an idea at the fed level and what happens on the ground.
My issue with the original post is that it somehow connects a wrong answer in the back of a textbook to “what if” this happens in a high stakes setting. To me there are too many gaps in that logic.
I agree with your insistence that tests should be released, but all the transparency in the world is not going to make subjecting our students to these tests the right thing to do.
The math tests were worded so confusingly, there were two possible answers to several questions. One question asked about a cross section of a candy bar. Even the math proctor couldn’t figure it out. Abolish the tests. After the students take them, they think it’s the end of the school year because teachers refuse to rehang items on their walls. Then administrators go around and write teachers up as inefficient and unprofessional. This coming from a person who hasn’t been in a classroom for over 20 years! Enough already!
In my state, if a 3rd grade student fails the reading portion of the end of grade test the child may have to attend a summer reading camp or repeat third grade. I don’t understand with the stakes so high, why a parent or teacher is not allowed to review the child’s complete test.
According to Gov. Cuomo, the NYS CC tests are “meaningless” and boy, is he right!
For anyone who is interested in the context: http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/04/8566718/cuomo-opt-out-tests-dont-count-against-students
Student results on New York State tests will not count toward promotion or admissions decisions for the foreseeable future.
No one will care about the context. He owns the sound bite and the headline:
CUOMO DECLARES: COMMON CORE TESTS ARE “MEANINGLESS”
End of story. His context doesn’t matter because it’s true. All data was corrupted because of his previous comments (in ads) and the opt out movement undermined the motivation for those who took the tests as well.
No parent should ever let their child take a test unless: why being administered, will I see results, I want to see the test, how does the test help my child, Who is going to give the tests? If it is a secret about anything to do with my child; that is not acceptable.
It did happen on a high stakes test. Grade 6 2014. In the released items, the first question about the carousel text. It’s a terrible question and a worse answer. https://www.engageny.org/file/103171/download/2013_ela_grade_6_sample_annotated_items.pdf