The following comment was posted by a frustrated teacher in Florida, who has had to take a Pearson exam again and again. In the past, 86% of applicants passed the exam on the first try, she writes. After Pearson revised the exam in 2014, only 24% passed on the first attempt.
“Hello, Diane:
“I came across your blog after making a search using the following words: Why can’t I pass the Florida Educational Leadership Exam 3.0 (FELE 3.0)? I read one entry in your blog that made me realize I may not alone, and inspired me to share my own experience dealing with Pearson. I thank you deeply for your blog and the opportunity to share. I have been trying to find an answer to my question for exactly 12 months. I took the FELE 3.0 four times since last year and have not been able to pass one of its four sections. I am retaking it again this coming week. The exam used to be three subtests, but Pearson or the state split the last subtest into two parts, which are deemed today the most difficult by Florida university professors. I was able to pass that subtest and the second subtest the first time around. My battle a year later is still trying to pass the first subtest of this state exam.
“I have been a teacher in Florida for 13 years. I am certified in two areas. I wanted to pursue my master’s degree for several years and finally was able to do so in the summer of 2013 by enrolling into a two year educational leadership program at a local state university. Throughout my two years of study, every single one of my professors found me to be a very intelligent candidate. They shared their observations about my research abilities and commitment and constantly told me I was a great student. I aced every single one of my courses with 100%, except for one where my final passing grade was a 96%. For two years, I thought I was doing great, until I sat to take the mandatory and upgraded Florida Educational Leadership Examination 3.0. The university will not grant me my diploma until I pass that exam.
“The new exam has been around since January 2014. They call it the FELE 3.0 to differentiate it from the previous FELEs. I found out that about 86% of candidates who sat for the older FELEs used to pass the exam the first time. Now, only 24% of candidates taking the new FELE 3.0 passed the first time in 2015!! Yes, Pearson and the State of Florida made the test more rigorous, but give me a break; only 24% are passing this exam the first time?! The rest of us keep taking subtests of the exam several times, with some of us missing the 200 mark within 10 points or much less. In my case, I have failed it by 3 points twice! Several of my classmates from a year ago are still struggling with passing some subtests of the test as well. In the meantime, Pearson is laughing its way to the bank.
“The infuriating thing about my experience is that:
“1. Every time I sit for the subtest, I have to pay Pearson the entire exam fee of $225, as if I’m taking the entire 7-hour exam all over again. I am only taking a two-hour subtest. They lower the fee for the third subtest because it is the one most candidates are not passing, but those of us having to retest on other sections have to pay the full fee.
“2. I have to remain enrolled at the university and paying tuition until I pass the exam (no one can give me a straight answer to the question: Is this a state or university policy? They keep giving me the run around.) In the meantime, I owe Sally Mae $70,000 so far for a master’s degree I have not yet finished because I fail the state exam by a few points. Yes, $70K. No kidding.
“3. I have to wait a minimum of 3 weeks to find out how I did in the test, which increases the amount of wait time (and keeps me longer in limbo).
“4. Pearson charges you $75 if you want to know what questions you missed, but don’t offer any guidance as to how to prepare better to pass the next time. On top of that, you have to wait longer, 31 days, to sit for the exam after doing this. (They really milk it.)
“5. I have had to find my own resources to study from (basically national research and studies I find on the web) since the exam is so new and nothing like the older one. Most of the FELE resources I’ve had access to, including one seminar I had to pay on my own, are outdated).
“6. When I contacted the state twice to find out where I can study from (because my university had no clue), they gave me a list of reference books. I bought every single one of them, spending a lot of money on books that have vast information. I don’t know what to pinpoint and what is it I am still missing that is making me fail by 3 points! My professors are at a loss too. I found out the second time when calling the state that my calls are re-routed to Pearson, who refused to tell me who they were. I only know it was Pearson because of the area code of the number, which is in Andover, Massachusetts.
“Most people know that, because of all the major changes the Common Core State Standards brought to education, everything else has changed, including how schools are expected to be managed. Now, administrators are called to be instructional leaders rather than the building managers they once were. This is fine with me; I agree with all of that. I agree that rigor needs to be increased in most classrooms and that students must be challenged. I welcome school reform, but not at the expense of companies getting richer from those who cannot afford to continue taking exams and taking loans until they pass a state requirement that doesn’t really measure the real-time success of an aspiring administrator. I am not OK with an organization such as Pearson getting rich from unsuspecting graduate candidates.
“I am getting ready to take the exam again for the fifth time this coming week. Will I pass it? Will I not? If the exam is rigged to the point that African Americans and Hispanics cannot pass it, then I am royally screwed. I am Latina and black. Here I am, with my career in limbo because I cannot pass a Pearson exam by three miserable points. I really want to know what the hell is going on. I would like to see more people with my experience come forward and speak out. Something needs to be done about this.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I ask whatever happened to the standard error of measure (+/- 3) because it would have helped those students who failed FCAT and FSA and you. I am sorry for your trouble. It is ludicrous.
Yep, something as simple as that. Obviously her institution has failed in its responsibility to provide support and the kind of thinking and knowledge that would have spotted that option right off the bat.
Reading the Florida teacher’s description of all the money both the college and Pearson are making for the constant re-testing, it’s clear that both have a racket going on.
RACKET is the key word. There’s no way this should be legal. There should be Congressional hearings and a Justice Department investigation. Same goes for the horrible edTPA and Pearson’s takeover of the GRE.
The professors that have endorsed the writer’s work might want to consider speaking out against these corrupt practices instead of shaking their heads.
This isn’t just an example of one teacher feeling bad about her testing experience. It’s evidence of a possible fraud, and it’s grounds to give Pearson the boot. They must not be allowed to take over what’s left of US public education.
I wonder why more people aren’t waking up to the education rackets. Then again, maybe “Everybody knows that the dice are loaded . . .”
pearson is owned by disney by the way
It is the exact same thing with the GED testing. The test was revamped in 2014, made damn near impossible to pass, have to keep spending money to re-test. Yes, it is a racket. I am telling Randy Trask the President of Person-Vue to kiss my ass.
Would you really want Randy Trask the President of Person-Vue teeth that close to your ass? Instead of kissing you, he might go for a pound of your flesh.
Pearson excels at making money for Pearson. Their tests are designed to fail most applicants. That is how they create a “cash cow.” Pearson is not much better than an extortionist racket. I blame our policymakers for allowing Pearson to be our gatekeeper for so many exams that enable people to move forward and realize their dreams. Who says that passing the Pearson test will make candidates a better educational leader?
Not all the blame lies with Pearson. It’s kind of like blaming a lion for the death of a gazelle. Pearson is only doing what it is in existence for: making a profit for the owners/shareholders.
For me the blame lies with the university. She claims to still “believe in school reform”. How one can get through a masters program still claiming that means that her courses had very few components of critical thinking, critical pedagogy and probably few in education history, philosophy and/or ontological and epistemological foundation courses.
She is literally paying the price for that lack of masters level study.
You’re obviously one of them benefiting from the loss of hundreds of teachers.
Tami,
Would you please care to elaborate. I don’t understand what you are trying to say with your response. TIA, Duane
I passed the pre-exam two times at about 85 & 96%. BUT, I have failed at Pearson’s Arizona Real Estate Exam 9 times at $75 per pop. I have failed by 2% and 3% each time. This place is corrupt at the core. I know I passed it last time but they take “15 questions randomly out” and I “know” it must be 15 correct questions. They can make you not pass and I have studied so hard for months and I never can pass. The tests are really hard and some questions are not in the book I have been studying. I miss always by 2 or 3%. I already have a job with a broker I can upgrade and this is ridiculous, corrupt and Pearson’s is making a killing on taking poor students for a lot of $$$. They need to be stopped… Why won’t the government stop this???
I’ve known more than one person to struggle with these types of invalid tests.
How do you know the test is invalid? Do you have any evidence?
All high stakes test were invalid before they were written. A student’s grade point average (GPA) is more meaningful than the score on one of these waste-of-time tests.
Here’s an example of evidence that supports what I think.
“A study examining 55,084 CPS students found that high-school GPAs are five times stronger than ACT scores at predicting college graduation. Feb 5, 2020”
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/test-scores-dont-stack-gpas-predicting-college-success#:~:text=A%20study%20examining%2055%2C084%20CPS,scores%20at%20predicting%20college%20graduation.
My daughter got into Stanford, not from her test scores that were a little below average, but because of her 4.3 GPA and the fact that in high school she was a scholar athlete.
Stanford admissions told me that they only use test scores as a tie breaker when they have two students that are equally strong in the same areas like GPA, volunteering, athletics, et al.
High stakes tests were created and forced on this country by private sector corporations out to boost their profits.
The only useful tests are teacher made tests to help teacher determine if a unit they taught was successful and to use the results to also help them planning future lessons.
Corporations can’t profit off of GPA or teacher made tests for use only in each teacher’s classroom.
If you’ve not seen my posts on all the invalidities involved in the standards and testing malpractice regime, well now is the time to learn and understand. The whole process is onto-epistemologically bankrupt as shown by Noel Wilson in his never refuted nor rebutted 1997 dissertation “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error”. See (it will download a pdf of the dissertation): https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/viewFile/577/700
See below for a brief, albeit, incomplete summary. The many invalidities hold for all standardized tests that are foisted upon students.
Tell us. . . why do you think they are valid?
Or try Wilson’s “A Little Less than Valid: An Essay Review”
From a little less than valid:
To the extent that these categorisations are accurate or valid at an individual level, these decisions may be both ethically acceptable to the decision makers, and rationally and emotionally acceptable to the test takers and their advocates. They accept the judgments of their society regarding their mental or emotional capabilities. But to the extent that such categorisations are invalid, they must be deemed unacceptable to all concerned.
Further, to the extent that this invalidity is hidden or denied, they are all involved in a culture of symbolic violence. This is violence related to the meaning of the categorisation event where, firstly, the real source of violation, the state or educational institution that controls the meanings of the categorisations, are disguised, and the authority appears to come from another source, in this case from professional opinion backed by scientific research. If you do not believe this, then consider that no matter how high the status of an educator, his voice is unheard unless he belongs to the relevant institution.
And finally a symbolically violent event is one in which what is manifestly unjust is asserted to be fair and just. In the case of testing, where massive errors and thus miscategorisations are suppressed, scores and categorisations are given with no hint of their large invalidity components. It is significant that in the chapter on Rights and responsibilities of test users, considerable attention is given to the responsibility of the test taker not to cheat. Fair enough. But where is the balancing responsibility of the test user not to cheat, not to pretend that a test event has accuracy vastly exceeding technical or social reality? Indeed where is the indication to the test taker of any inaccuracy at all, except possibly arithmetic additions?
A Little Less than Valid: An Essay Review
http://edrev.asu.edu/index.php/ER/article/view/1372/43
I did not assert that anything was or wasn’t valid; I was only asking about your assertion. Any high stakes test must have demonstrated reliability and validity. I could go on and on about the psychometric processes involved in determining those two variables, but that’s probably beyond this discussion. While reliability is a statistical measure (think KR-20), validity is more objectively determined. There are careful and extensive procedures for evaluating validity, but they all still come down to the opinions of subject matter experts. This process does not consider the decisions regarding inputs, i.e., what the test makers are trying to measure but rather to assess the degree to which a test measures what it was intended to measure. For example, does a math test actually measure the math as intended or does it measure reading (ultimately, reading is required in almost all tests) or superfluous knowledge? BTW, measurement error (SEM) is generally a consideration in setting passing scores.
The only purpose of all multiple choice high stakes tests is the profit for the company that makes them. The rest is BS, simply put.
No matter how many long, mumbo jumbo words designed to impress in an attempt to justify these tests isn’t going to change that fact that they prove nothing.
No high stakes test has ever proven who will be successful and who won’t. But GPA has been a reliable indicator for decades if not centuries.
One student earns a high score and goes on to become a drug addict and can’t hold a job. Someone else that fails a high stakes test goes on to become incredibly successful in life and never becomes a drug addict.
Good morning. Let me first say that I understand your point of view and I am only trying to clarify some issues. Let me discuss your points in order.
1. There are many purposes for high stakes multiple-choice (MCQ) tests, perhaps most common is licensing. Many are created by for-profit companies, some are not. I personally have no issue with any company whose goal is to earn a profit attempting to do so; YMMV. Testing companies do not just make high-stakes tests and then try to sell them–they work for clients such as state departments of education or professional organizations. Their success depends on how well they deliver what their clients want, much as carpenters must deliver on the architect’s design, even if it may be a subjectively ugly design. (This is not to suggest that testing companies don’t counsel their clients–they do.)
2. I’m sorry f you feel I used “long, mumbo jumbo words” to impress you. The former are fundamental measurement terms, the latter is merely amusing (what incentive would I have to try to impress you?).
3. Very few high stakes tests are designed to predict professional performance, though some do show an unintended correlation. Most are designed as a relatively low bar to allow entry into a profession, not to ensure that passers will be highly successful in that profession (think should a person who wants to be a math teacher be able to demonstrate that he or she knows math). I agree that many organizations have been, usually for political reasons, trying to stretch what MCQs do best. GPA is often a relatively significant predictor of future performance. The main problem with GPAs is that they are not standard. Schools have different philosophies (think grade inflation) and different scales (e.g., a 4.3 GPS is by definition meaningless on a four-point scale). This issue also reflects the truism that smarter people tend to be smarter people.
4. I know of no exam ever devised to assess who will and will not become a drug addict, though it sounds like an interesting challenge. Again, most high-stakes are not intended to predict SUCCESS.
Thanks for listening (or reading)
I think you have proven that high stakes tests are a waste of money and time and achieve nothing, improve nothing. But they do siphon off public funds that would be better spent in the classroom.
I also disagree with this statement: “I personally have no issue with any company whose goal is to earn a profit attempting to do so.”
When earning a profit means hurting a child’s chances to improve their ability to learn and improve their reading skills, then we have a serious problem.
Money that goes to for profit companies that sell public school districts products and/or services that have no directly link to the classroom is a waste of money. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few of many examples.
1A: Soda machine selling Coke, Pepsi and other flavors in hallways that profit private companies have no place in public schools. The sugar and chemicals in those drinks interfere with a child’s ability to learn what teachers teach and improve their reading skills.
1B: Any high stakes tests that do not immediately benefit a teacher’s ability to enhance and/or improve their teaching skills and lessons is a waste of time and most if not all high stakes tests do not report results of those tests for months after the tests are administered. I taught for thirty years and high stakes tests came near the end of the year and we didn’t see the results until the next year after all of the students tests moved on. But teachers do not need those tests in the first place. Professional teachers create their own diagnostic tests linked to the lessons they are teaching throughout the year that helps them determine if their lessons are working with the group of students they have each year. There is no need for anyone outside of the classroom to have access to those teacher made, diagnostic tests.
1C: Finland has proven there is no need for high stakes tests. While those tests are available, it is up to the professional teachers to use them or not.
1D: Referring to Finland again, Finland has one set of rules for all of its schools, public or private and all the schools must follow the same rules.
In the US, allowing publicly funded, for profit companies to open private schools that do not have to follow the same rules and regulations real public schools do has created an environment of fraud and crime, in affect, stealing from the working class to enrich the wealthy.
1E: Allowing publicly funded, private sector K-12 schools to complete with real public schools hasn’t improved education. But it has siphoned off public money from public school to profit private sector companies. Studies out of Harvard and Stanford have clearly pointed out that most if not all of these charter schools are not improving anything and public school tend to still beat them at education children.
et al.
Those “psychometric processes” are invalid in themselves. See Wilson’s “A Little Less than Valid: An Essay Review” to understand why.
And no, those tests “measure” nothing. Another invalid concept used by psychometricians to give a pseudo-scientific sheen to the standards and testing malpractice regime. My thoughts on that nonsense:
The most misleading concept/term in education is “measuring student achievement” or “measuring student learning”. The concept has been misleading educators into deluding themselves that the teaching and learning process can be analyzed/assessed using “scientific” methods which are actually pseudo-scientific at best and at worst a complete bastardization of rationo-logical thinking and language usage.
There never has been and never will be any “measuring” of the teaching and learning process and what each individual student learns in their schooling. There is and always has been assessing, evaluating, judging of what students learn but never a true “measuring” of it.
But, but, but, you’re trying to tell me that the supposedly august and venerable APA, AERA and/or the NCME have been wrong for more than the last 50 years, disseminating falsehoods and chimeras??
Who are you to question the authorities in testing???
Yes, they have been wrong and I (and many others, Wilson, Hoffman etc. . . ) question those authorities and challenge them (or any of you other advocates of the malpractices that are standards and testing) to answer to the following onto-epistemological analysis:
The TESTS MEASURE NOTHING, quite literally when you realize what is actually happening with them. Richard Phelps, a staunch standardized test proponent (he has written at least two books defending the standardized testing malpractices) in the introduction to “Correcting Fallacies About Educational and Psychological Testing” unwittingly lets the cat out of the bag with this statement:
“Physical tests, such as those conducted by engineers, can be standardized, of course [why of course of course], but in this volume , we focus on the measurement of latent (i.e., nonobservable) mental, and not physical, traits.” [my addition]
Notice how he is trying to assert by proximity that educational standardized testing and the testing done by engineers are basically the same, in other words a “truly scientific endeavor”. The same by proximity is not a good rhetorical/debating technique.
Since there is no agreement on a standard unit of learning, there is no exemplar of that standard unit and there is no measuring device calibrated against said non-existent standard unit, how is it possible to “measure the nonobservable”?
THE TESTS MEASURE NOTHING for how is it possible to “measure” the nonobservable with a non-existing measuring device that is not calibrated against a non-existing standard unit of learning?????
PURE LOGICAL INSANITY!
The basic fallacy of this is the confusing and conflating metrological (metrology is the scientific study of measurement) measuring and measuring that connotes assessing, evaluating and judging. The two meanings are not the same and confusing and conflating them is a very easy way to make it appear that standards and standardized testing are “scientific endeavors”-objective and not subjective like assessing, evaluating and judging.
Thase supposedly objective results are used to justify discrimination against many students for their life circumstances and inherent intellectual traits.
C’mon test supporters, have at the analysis, poke holes in it, tell me where I’m wrong!
I’m expecting that I’ll still be hearing the crickets and cicadas of tinnitus instead of reading any rebuttal or refutation. Because there is no rebuttal/refutation!
I enjoy a spirited discussion and exchange of knowledge–it’s a good way to learn. However, stating that there is no rebuttal or refutation tends to stifle debate. Nonetheless, I will address a few of your points. No, the psychometric processes are not invalid. Social science is not the same as hard science. The concepts of reliability and validity are real and important. You say tests measure nothing, yet I can, with a mere 50-item MCQ test measure your level of knowledge of calculus. Whether you think the ability to do this is important or not is irrelevant to that reality. I get that you don’t like assessment in general–lot’s of people don’t. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to know if my surgeon has the required medical knowledge and skills before she cuts me open. Yet you assert that there is no way we can measure this. I respectfully disagree and to that degree I guess I am the dreaded test supporter. Actually, as someone with extensive knowledge of the hated industry, I am a critic of many of the practices, most particularly the political nature of sponsoring organizations and how they choose to define what they intend to measure. Their wishes are often beyond the technical capacity of the instruments chosen for the content they wish to measure (yeah, I know, nothing can be measured).
It seems you are talking about assessing students while I am focusing on professional licensing per the OP.
Gotta run
That professional licensing involves students does it not? I am talking about both.
And no, they don’t measure anything. They count correct answers which proclaims percent of correct answers as measurement. It’s not. Counting is not measuring.
“. . . how they choose to define what they intend to measure.”
I guess it’s a great world in which one can define whatever one means by words. I believe Lewis Carroll described that with the Jabberwocky, eh!
I can assure you that your work promoting standardized testing for anything is causing far more harm than good. You just don’t see it because of your belief(s) in the pseudo-scientific methods of psychometrics.
Please read Wilson’s and my work and then come back and discuss.
From what I’ve read between the lines of Dawn’s evasive answers is that she values the freedom to profit from anyone and anything, allegedly a true cutthroat capitalist in every sense. I do not think she is capable of looking past those profits and learning how much harm is being done to teachers and children in the name of profit.
Please point out “evasive answers.” Yes, I believe in capitalism. Your other attempts to smear for having a civil conversation say more about you than me. Have a nice day
There are better forms of capitalisms than the way it is practiced in the US where most people lose while a few win all the time.
Your apparently blind support and defense of cutthroat capitalism revealers who you may allegedly side with, the American oligarchs: people like Bill Gates, the Walmart Walton family, Koch industries, et al.
From 1900 (when the power of the ruling class known as the Robber Barons was broken) until the 1970s, the US was moving toward a more friendly form of capitalism.
During that time the country passed an Amendment that gave women the right to vote and own property (they were also no longer considered the chattel, the property of men).
Child labor laws came into being and the country started building, with public dollars, state by state, the public school systems for all children to attend instead of just the ruling class. Before those laws, children as young as 7 could be indentured to factories, coal mines and whore houses. The reason many parents were so desperate they were forced to sell their children into a form of salvery, was because almost half of Americans lived in poverty at that time.
The country also started building a social safety net to protect the working class from being used as wage slaves: Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and retirement plans.
Labor unions, a voice for the working class, were born and grew in power. Because of those labor unions, the working class started to have retirement plans. Then there was the Civil Rights movement and legislation to protect minorities from the abuse of the white ruling class.
Then in the 1970s, ALEC was born under the leadership of the so-called libertarian Koch brothers, and they gathered a large group of millionaires and billionaires that agreed with them and didn’t agree with that social safety net for the working class, and the more than 13,000 public school systems supported by local taxes and fees that the working class controlled through elected school boards.
In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan became president and under his administration that social safety net became a target of the conservative ruling class that controlled the Republican Party
Now, more than fifty years later, all of those gains have being eroded and/or are under threat of being dismantled. That didn’t happen overnight. Since the 1970s, there has been a concerted effort to undermine all of the gains of the working class that became America’s middle class.
In 1900, when the tide turned against the Robber Baron’s more than 40% of the American population lived in poverty and only 7% of the children in this country finished high school and 3% went on to college.
All those gains are now threatened by a new want-to-be crop of Robber Barons that don’t want to pay taxes, don’t want powerful state governments or a powerful federal government to tell them what they can or cannot do. Most the middle class is in debt and their income is not keeping up with the cost of living. Many retirement plans have been robbed and are empty shells. Social Security is threatened. The US had a great medical system that was getting better until President Reagan turned a non-profit medical system into one based on profits.
And today, thanks to that war being waged against the public sector and the working class, about 50 million Americans have no medical care, can’t afford it and many in the Middle Class are threatened by bankruptcy because a lot of medical care, if they have it, doesn’t cover preexisting conditions. Among the developed nations, only one country has more children living in poverty than the US and that is Romania
What was achieved by the Civil Right movement is threatened.
Social Security is threatened.
The country has a massive national debt that was started under President Reagan who also ended ended the Fairness Doctrine that required and supported honesty and balance in news reporting. During the Reagan years, liars and hate mongers like Rush Limbaugh became infamous and wealthy leading to fake Fox news, OAN, Sinclair Media, and Newsmax, et al.
Corporations are now considered equal to individual people and allowed to secretly fund and support candidates for public office that are beholden to those oligarchs and to do their bidding. Early in this century there was legislation that attempted to reform campaign contributions but that was undermined by the cosnerviatvie justices on the US Supreme Court.
The US had the largest porn industry in the world, the largest private sector weapons industry in the world (that even sells weapons to our enemies), the largest prison population in the world (about 70 million Americans have served time in prison since President Nixon declared war on recreational drugs, and the list goes on.
That is the cutthroat capitalism I’m talking about.
However, there is a better form of capitalism in this world. Its called Cuddly Capitalism where everyone wins, the wealthy are still rich, but not as much as the rich in the US are.
No, a real estate exam (see OP) does not involve students.
Thanks for your offer, but you are clearly only interested in pontification and promoting specific works. It may surprise you to know that I have read Wilson’s works. I could offer you dozens of book suggestions that provide differing points of view, but I don’t get the feeling that you are interested in scholarly inquiry. Have a nice day
You’ve read Wilson. Please tell me where his analysis is wrong. I’ve been pleading with the standards and testing malpractice supporters for twenty years now to rebut, to refute his work and no one, not a single person has done so. Please be the first.
As far as reliability? The tests are reliably invalid. And do immeasurable harm to the teaching and learning process.
Be that as it may reliability means nothing when there is no validity to the process. And no, what the test makers and psychometricians call validity is not what they, and you, say it is. Again, see Wilson’s works and mine “Infidelity to Truth: Education Malpractice in American Public Education.*” If you give my your email address I will send you a copy gratis, well almost gratis. All I ask is that you donate $15 to a public school teacher of your choice.
*In it I discuss the purpose of American public education and of government in general, issues of truth in discourse, justice and ethics in teaching practices, the abuse and misuse of the terms standards and measurement which serve to provide an unwarranted pseudo-scientific validity/sheen to the standards and testing malpractice regime and how the inherent discrimination in that regime should be adjudicated to be unconstitutional state discrimination no different than discrimination via race, gender, disability, etc. . . .
Does this exam have written responses, or is it all multiple choice? I’d like to tell you how written responses are scored at Pearson.
I took a seasonal job at Pearson scoring written exams. The application process was all online, and there was no interview, not even a phone interview, before I was given the job. The pay was $12.50/hour, the hours were spotty and unreliable (2 to 6 hours per day), and the job was short-term, with an uncertain duration. Myself and my fellow scorers were a band of misfits at the very bottom of the economic ladder–even working in fast food or retail would have been a more stable job.
There was no classroom training before we began scoring, simply a process of reading a few examples and doing practice scoring, after which the workers who didn’t score the practice tests to match Pearson’s predetermined results were moved to a different scoring project or laid off.
Most of the scoring seemed arbitrary to me, and it was a constant struggle to stick to giving scores that I thought Pearson wanted, vs. scores that common sense suggested.
Later I did “distributed scoring” for Pearson, meaning I scored exams from home. Pearson implied this would be 2-3 months of work, in reality it was about 3 weeks of work, with exams available to be scored for as little as 10 minutes/day, but I was encouraged to keep checking their site all day to see if exams had been released for scoring. Distributed scoring is paid per response scored, so scorers are incentivized to rush as much as possible. Of course scoring from home had even less training or oversight than scoring at the Pearson office.
In short, just as those taking Pearson exams are being exploited for Pearson’s profit, so too are the short-term, temporary work force that scores Pearson exams. Pearson’s test scores should be considered invalid for a variety of reasons, but one reason is that the people scoring the exams are temp workers with no screening, training, job benefits, or job security. I can tell you that few if any Pearson scorers take the job seriously, we were just jumping through Pearson’s hoops as an unemployment stopgap.
ex-Pearson temp: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose/the more things change, the more they stay the same…
I am sure you will understand more deeply than most Todd Farley’s MAKING THE GRADES: MY MISADVENTURES IN THE STANDARDIZED TESTING INDUSTRY (2009).
Re the comments of others below, for the tremendous power of putatively objective & standardized testing to reinforce and perpetuate existing social inequalities, Yong Zhao’s WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD DRAGON: WHY CHINA HAS THE BEST (AND WORST) EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE WORLD (2014).
$tudent $ucce$$ feeds off the mantra “you treasure what you measure.”
Anthony Cody, THE EDUCATOR AND THE OLIGARCH (2014), chapter 22, “Bill Gates and the Cult of Measurement: Efficiency Without Excellence,” last paragraph (p. 146) —
[start]
Measurement and standardization delivers efficiency without excellence. When this comes the driving force in a marketized education system, it both fosters conformity and channels innovation towards commercially viable solutions for those unable to purchase the sort of personalized education the wealthy choose for their own children. Measurement in education will not serve the poor. It will merely make the schools attended by the poor more efficient in preserving their poverty.
[end]
My thanks to all of the contributors to this thread.
And my best wishes to the young woman who is being subjected to pointlessly expensive rounds of the test-to-punish hazing rituals of self-styled “education reform.”
😎
P.S. This posting and threads also resonates quite nicely with the two postings immediately above.
That really ticks me off to hear that, ppl spend so much money on the test, the stress, the hope,the study time.
I have over 250,000/+ student loans if I don’t pass the next exam I take so I can reach full time not as a sub the state can say bye bye to every seeing that money. BS, grad post education, and MA trading n development and 10 years teaching 3 on temporary and 6 substituting.
can you please contact me directly at juliemccue@yahoo.com
i am about to make a case against pearson and need some details to prove that you were indeed employed as a reader by them for credibility purposes…i really need your help
Julie: Were you successful in making your case against Pearson? If so, please let me know. If not, tell me what happened. I will greatly appreciate your insight.
Hello, ex-Pearson temp. I thank you for writing about this and wonder if you could contact me at cantpassthefele3.0@gmail.com at your earliest convenience. Need your help. Hope to communicate with you soon. Thanks.
I am a professional writer and editor and a licensed educator. I recently took a Foundations of Reading (090) test through Pearson and was shocked, absolutely bewildered, that I failed the test by two points.
On my open-responses, I received the lowest designation possible. I have always, and I mean always, scored in the top decile of test takers when answering such questions. I know that my response did not merit such an abysmal score. However, after researching, I have found I have no recourse. Pearson says neither multiple choice nor open-response questions can be challenged. They are de facto despots.
Russell, that’s a shocking story.
Imagine the talented students whose lives have been ruined by such tests.
I never liked tests when I was a K-12 student and later a college student and learned to hate them to the point that I refused to subject the middle and high school students I taught to tests like those that judged what they could remember for crap they might have never studied.
The only test I gave my students based on what I taught that was part of their grade was the final exam at the end of the year. It was an open textbook test and I provided a study guide to help them find the answers before they took the test. The second highest score become the top and everyone else was based off that score. Even then, my students could fail that test and still earn an A in the class from the work they’d done. That test was worth 5% of their grade and 95% was from the classwork and homework. Students that already had earned 90% from the classwork could not lose their A even if they decided not to take the test. I even told them that.
In addition, I offered an extra credit essay that students could take voluntarily to boost the score of the multiple choice part of the test if they wanted to.
Indeed, it is quite unfortunate. I just took a couple Praxis tests to add a special education endorsement to my teaching license and had no problem. I never have had any issues with ETS. This was my first experience with Pearson. I am 48 and have been playing this testing game for years. I understand my abilities and my shortcomings.
I am not disappointed that I failed to pass the test. I am confident in my subject knowledge. I am angry because I was given the lowest score possible for a writing assignment that I know could not have merited such a score. The most outrageous thing is I have no way to ever access the prompt or my response. There is no way to question the integrity of the score. It is scary that this Company has so much unchecked power.
Russell,
I think Pearson is using machines to correct tests of all kinds, even essays.
Russel, welcome to the world created by ALEC and the Walton Family Foundation (and their allies) that hates the public sector that they cannot control, and a powerful federal government that punishes them when they break laws created through the democratic process as defined in the US Constitution through legislation and amendments.
In the 1970s, I earned a life teaching credential through a year long urban residency. For the first 16 years, the data the district kept to determine how teachers were doing revealed that my students were outscoring all of the other students at their grade level in writing and reading.
When I transfered from that middle school to the high school, the district continued to monitor data to keep track of student reading and writing grades and according to admisntration, my students at the same grade level were always ahead of the rest of the district until 2005 when I retired.
But that didn’t stop ALEC and its allies from making life miserable for pulbic school teachers.
After the misleading “A Nation at Risk” report during the Reagan years, that was later proved wrong by another study, every English teacher had to prove they could read and write to continue teaching English.
We had to take a test, similar to the one you are referring to. I wasn’t alone. So many teachers failed that test through the state, there were law suits and a settlement that required teachers that failed the test to return to college and earn 20 units of graduate level classes to continue teaching.
That was a pain in the you know what, driving in rush hour traffic to a local university where it wasn’t easy to find parking, to take night classes, after I’d taught all day.
I think these tests were designed to be failed and because of the secrecy there’s no way to prove we actually failed or how they judged we failed.
In New York State, the fail rate for the Administrator’s test is also very high.
In my own case, I already have teaching certification 1 -6 and really wanted to pursue Pre-K. I took an additional 3 credits (told I only needed 3 or possibly 6 credits) at a real university – not Touro – and received a 4.00 in the course, which was great, by the way. When I paid the $180 to take the CST again, I failed the math portion, which was NOT the same as the sample math tests NY State provided on their website. I was offered a list of formulas for the test, none of which was applicable to the test I actually took. I was supposed to have an online calculator, but that wasn’t provided. When I asked the proctor, she offered me her personal calculator from her bag! I didn’t need it, because it wasn’t necessary for this test. (Anyway, I know arithmetic.) I passed the essay portion of the math section, which consisted of identifying strategies using the Common Core.
This test is so bad that the New York State Education Department allows certified teachers to use their OLD CST when they fail the new one! It’s called the “Safety Net” feature, which you can find on their website. I called and asked them why I had to pay the $180 and spend 6 hours on the new test if the old test was applicable. NY State said that’s the way Pearson wanted it.
Finally, when I uploaded all my information into the Teacher porthole, I received a bizarre letter 6 weeks later saying I wasn’t qualified to teach, based on my college transcripts. I had been teaching for the DOE/NYC for several years as a certified teacher, so this makes no sense. In her letter, the evaluator writes that she based this on my long-ago previous BFA and MA in an entirely different field, and not on the 42 credits (MS/Education) I amassed at CUNY as a Teaching Fellow. I had to RE-SEND my MS from CUNY to NY State, and 4 weeks later, I still haven’t heard anything. I lost 2 pending Pre-K positons and I’m now working in a different field.
Is the New York State Education Department deliberately dragging its heals granting B – 2 certification in New York City because they want DiBlasio’s U Pre-K program to fail?
Finally, the Pearson tests were incompetent and ridiculous. I’ve taken a lifetime worth of Arts & Science tests and this one was a mess of “STEM” type questions with absolutely no arts or literature content. There was one extremely cynical question about Caribbean music, where the answer is “rhythm.” I guess it was thrown in for diversity.
I think the only way out of this is to declare a shooting war with Pearson and all of their allies. Make no mistake, this is a war of terror. Pearson and their allies are terrorists. Pearson is a member of the 1% that has declared an ecnomic and political war of domination against the other 99%.
Would love clarification on why university tuition is being paid! But her comment suggests somewhere in this “mess” that paying tuition is indeed mandatory…
“2. I have to remain enrolled at the university and paying tuition until I pass the exam (no one can give me a straight answer to the question: Is this a state or university policy? They keep giving me the run around.) In the meantime, I owe Sally Mae $70,000 so far for a master’s degree I have not yet finished because I fail the state exam by a few points. Yes, $70K. No kidding…”
Universities should really be putting up one hell of a fuss against this Pearson nonsense!!!!
Universities should be, but it is obvious why they are not standing up for the students against a mega corporation like Pearson or any other corporation or bilionare—that university, and many others, has been bought and/or subverted by Pearson and their allies in this war against the 99%.
I think the only way this will end is in a bloody revolution—somewhere down the line— where a large segment of the 99% rise up and declare war against the established, autocratic, corporate 1%. The only other option is to elect someone like Sanders or the Green Party candidate for president to the White House and stop voting for candidates who are owned and controlled by the oligarchs. And that is not going to happen, because more than 90% of the media is owned and controlled by six of those autocratic, profit driven corporations—in other words a propaganda machine supporting the 1% in their war agasint that other 99%, the rest of us.
Lloyd,
There is a reason universities don’t take a stand. They are always raising funds. They won’t bite the hand that controls the funds.
No argument from me. It’s always about the money.
Lloyd,
I guess my question is why is there not a class action suit against Pearson. It seems this is a problem across the country.
You might be interested in this from Alan Singer’s Huntington Post piece on what labor unions are doing to stop Pearson’s insanity with high stakes tests—what the unions are doing might turn out to be more powerful than a class action case in court.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/pension-funds-threaten-to_b_9397766.html
I believe there will be one in the near future. I believe we will be compensated for our lost wages as well as test fees. How idk, probably be based on that 10 points from passing..
I would be happy to participate in one. I have documented my nightmare along the way – still going through it….would gladly give over my documentation to lawyers
Lloyd, I see that Alan “social studies educator” Singer is neither a reporter nor does he have a clue about financial reports. Pearson was not about to have a “balance sheet in the red”. This makes no sense. It could have have an income statement or operating income in the red but a balance sheet matches assets (including equity) and liabilities.
If these “educators” are going to post articles on pension investments, is it too much to ask they learn the terms that an Econ 101 student would learn in the first semester?
You dismissed what Singer wrote, because he didn’t earn a BA in journalism and become a reporter. It is obvious that you know nothing about journalism or the media. All it takes to become a writer with the title of a reporter is a byline from what is considered a traditional media source. A reporter doesn’t even have to have a high school degree to become one. A reporter doesn’t even have to know how to spell, gather facts and write a balanced piece, because even a hack can turn out trash that an editor will revise and correct before it is published often without checking any of the facts used in a piece.
Singer revealed the losses to Pearson and how that corporation dealt with those losses by selling off branches of their corporation. Corporations use this tactic all the time. In fact, Ford, to avoid borrowing money during the 2007-08 global financial crises caused by fraud and Wall Street greed and avarice sold off parts of its corporate structure to raise money to keep the parent company alive so to the Ford brand survived without taking on government debt like GM and Chrysler did.
To write the truth and reveal fraud doesn’t take a journalism degree and a job as a reporter for a media source.
In fact, anyone who knows how to dig for facts from reputable spruces can write a story and publish it and do a much better job than many of the reporters that have sold their souls to the autocratic corporations that control 90% of the traditional media and control what they publish.
I have a BA in journalism. I know how the traditional media works, and it is rife with errors and bias—both conservative, liberal, and moderate. If you trust what you read in the traditional media without fact checking, then you are a total fool.
The traditional media is a private sector profit industry and does not guarnatee what they report is factual or honest because that often hurts profits. The media isn’t there to give the public the truth. They are there to make money anyway they can.
Lloyd, I was not a journalism major (as is evidenced by my writing) and don’t pretend to know how editors/news cycles work. I do know that Singer doesn’t have a clue about how to read annual/quarterly financial results. Let me give you an overview of the results first:
1. Sales were off slightly by ~2%
2. Profit was constant at 722M pounds. The one-time gain on the sale and the impairment of goodwill are not typically viewed as reflective of overall profit. Thus, the company was just as profitable in 2015 as in 2014.
3. Cash flow decreased as Pearson appeared to make investments in the year
4. Pearson decided to focus on the educational sector as it sold off its Economist and Financial Times unit. Typically, companies unlock value when they separate units in completely separate industries. Investors pay different multiples for such units and invariably, combining the two suppresses the value of the higher-growth unit. Since there is no synergy between newspapers and education, there is no reason to keep these units combined. Despite artificially inflating the net 2015 profit, the gain did not “prevent” Pearson from being profitable. There was another charge of ~800M pounds that was, in essence, writing down its brand. No money changed hands. Pearson simply revalued the worth of its brand that had been captured in goodwill from previous mergers.
Now, let’s get into the analysis.
A. Pearson rationalized its slowing sales due to declines in college enrollments. It did not blame Opt Out for slowing K-12 tests but rather explained that contract losses to other firms hurt its revenues.
B. Pearson is investing in future products that support (i) blended learning where the teacher assigned students customized lessons and assists when the student has trouble, (ii) certifications that demonstrate the student not only passed the test but is competent much like many technology certs (think Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Java, etc.) and (iii) English language learning products.
C. Pearson is looking to ramp up its online products in both virtual schools and blended learning. It can scale this up rather quickly because Common Core in the US provides a common set of standards. However, so can its competitors. We can see this from its 100M pound contract losses (wasn’t Connecticut one?). I would be hesitant to invest any money in Pearson because competition is going to get very fierce in this space now that a common set of standards has been implemented. Niche players can create innovative tools that can be scaled quickly and cheaply using web applications. Pearson has very little barriers to entry anymore. The market will grow but price competition will hurt profitability.
D. The pensions are claiming they can either hurt Pearson by withdrawing their investment or force Pearson to stop “high stakes testing”. Both are foolish pursuits. First, stock prices are determined based on broad, deep markets. If UNISON sold its stock and the price dropped 1-2%, a new investor would swoop in and purchase this now discounted stock. That’s the way the market works. Second, UNISON doesn’t have enough votes to change Pearson’s strategy. Even if it did, intentionally losing money only hurts the invested pensions as other competitors would quickly take Pearson’s place in the “high stakes testing” market. This is why it’s foolish to say “don’t buy oil from xyz”. They will just sell it someone else instead because oil is fungible.
I realize it’s fun to read NeverNeverLand fantasies from a “social studies educator” like Singer. It makes you feel like you are sticking it to “the man”. But all it really does is show how divorced from reality teachers are. And it demonstrates why it’s probably a good think most teachers have no control over their retirement investments which are controlled by professional investment managers at the pension funds.
I think you are a biased, ignorant fool. I recommend readers ignore your opinions and read Singer’s piece on their own and then decide if they agree with you or not. I suspect most readers will not agree with your opinion of Singer’s piece no matter how much you rant.
The following information comes through Wiki but all the facts listed are footnoted and no one has challenged them.
2013 to 2015[edit]
In May 2013, Pearson announced a new restructuring plan to invest in digital learning and emerging markets, after predicting weaker earnings.[40]
The change supports the decoupling of the Penguin consumer publishing business into a separate entity with Random House (forming Penguin Random House). The new structure combines the separate education companies, Pearson International and Pearson North America under one Pearson company. Pearson will organize around three global lines of business – School, Higher Education and Professional. The Financial Times Group and Pearson English will form part of Pearson Professional.[41]
In July 2014, Pearson announced it had cut 4,000 jobs, representing 10% of the company’s workforce.[42]
Pearson announced on 23 July 2015 that it had agreed to sell the FT Group, which includes business daily Financial Times, to Japanese media group Nikkei for £844 million, or $1.32 billion. The sale does not include FT Group’s London property at One Southwark Bridge.[43] In August 2015, Pearson’s sold its 50% stake in The Economist to the Agnelli family for £469 million [44] who previously held 4.7% of the group;.[45] The remaining 50% of The Economist Group is owned by the Schroders, Cadburys and the Rothschilds.[45]
In addition, in April 2000, Pearson’s stock price reached a high of $42.25 a share and over the four following years fell of a cliff to end up at a low of $8.66 by May 1st 2003.
In December 2015, the stock price fell of another cliff after slowly climbing to a high of $22 by October of 2013. Pearson’s price per share is now about $12. Goldman just downgraded the stock from neutral to sell.
The Motley Fool says, “Pearson is undergoing its second restructuring since 2012 with this latest announcement, and combined, it will have cut nearly 10,000 jobs between the two restructuring, largely related to its back office and print operations. In short, part of the cuts are elimination of what management is finding as redundant personnel, but primarily due to shrinking demand for printed media such as textbooks. …
“Pearson is going to have to reinvent itself to survive and thrive, and this is another step in that direction. And it wouldn’t be the first time the company changed its spots — after all, it originally started out 130 years ago as a building contractor.
“With that said, there are a lot of cyclical challenges with its higher education market, as well as the technological shift that’s slowly killing the print business, that Pearson must navigate. Together, that’s an unenviable position for any business to be in.”
Sounds like university education departments like this one the author mentions are buying into this because each ed student who fails the test is a money-maker on their end… the student pays tuition to the university until they pass the Pearson test! Ughhh. This is definitely not a way for a university to attract education majors!!!! There should be a “shame list” noting which universities are requiring students to pay tuition (who have technically graduated from their program less this Pearson testing monstrosity)! Wondering if there is something I am missing here – seems so outrageous!
The university is certainly at fault for buying into the Pearson test or being bribed into it, but, correct me if I’m wrong, I think she keeps paying tuition to avoid making payments for her student debt until she earns her masters and returns to the workforce—if she left the workforce, that isn’t clear to me. The payments on that $70k is probably more than the tuition.
There is also the possibility that the universities leadership was infiltrated by the corporate public education demolition derby. That is a tactic of theirs—to infiltrate the national leadership of teachers’ unions, non-profit civil rights organizations, the national PTA, elected school boards, mayors’ offices, state legislatures and governors’ mansions, the US Congress, the White House and even the U.S. Supreme Court, and then once they are in, their army of puppets go to work to subvert the U.S. progressive, democratic republic into an autocratic oligarchy.
Agree. Meeting graduation requirements for a degree should end the tuition requirement with the university—it should not hinge on passing a test for certification. Florida Teacher— ask Pearson to provide you with documentation that these tests have been vetted and validated and are free of racial bias. You raise this issue above and deserve to have your concerns addressed.
Agree. You say, the university will not grant me my diploma until I pass that exam. This is a huge problem. Sounds like a scam. At minimum there should have been an upfront notice and other documents that informed you of this policy, and the extra costs, and mandated test before you enrolled. If not it sure sounds like a bait and switch operation.
There is a possibility that the policy is a by-product of the accreditation system for the educator prep programs. USDE has shaped the accreditation standards ( filled with metrics ) now administered by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. USDE will not offer to ReachGrants for education students who attend a program that is not CAPE acrredited.
I am reminded of a testing and measurement course I took in grad school. We were told that the markers of valid test is that it yields roughly a bell shaped curve as results. We were also told that if our tests failed to do this, WE had failed the students! Using what I was told years ago, I think it is fair to say that Pearson fails the students. Failing more people does not raise standards; it simply creates more failures, and, of course, more money for Pearson.
What I find to be most telling is how “secretive” these now very defensive test companies have become — forcing an ever churning flow of new material out their doors but then arguing that the teachers forced to administer these tests must never discuss them, even amongst themselves. To me, this in itself speaks very, very loudly.
Sad to say, this situation is not uncommon in a corporatized educational world. Pearson’s primary goal is to MAKE $$, and only tangentially & potentially to improve education or to help create better teachers. Pearson might likely qualify for a RICO investigation, criminal investigations aimed at racketeers who deliberately set a bar so high and make improvement so difficult that the sucker-teacher keeps spending money in an honest attempt to qualify.
Most teachers may not know that ignorant or even corrupt politicians have colluded with Pearson’s all-but-criminal scheme to take as much money from teachers as possible while the Pols recite platitudes about improving our schools. The pols are either criminal-like and in league with Pearson, or they are deliberately dumb and ignorant how & what their vote(s) have done to education and our children. JVK
I agree. Teachers across the country who have been victims of this scam should file a class-action suit against Pearson and the Department of Education in their state. I was told I did not pass a section of the education test for my state which is monitored by Pearson. When they refused to give me any other information I threatened to take them to court. The summary sheet identifying the questions I did not answer correctly came within two weeks. We make ourselves victims because we refuse to take the fight to the bully.
this is not necessarily true…i have been fighting really hard to get answers on how i can not pass the the written portion of the exam…i have paid to take it 4x…have missed it by one point each time and in the same category…have been tutored by FELE experts…have paid for a verification session where i received short letter with zero feedback to my appeal except that the reviewer deemed that my essay was scored correctly….literally that was it…no rubric, feedback.personalized portion in response to what i had to say in my appeal at the session..nothing…it was a standard template….everything documented …if there is a lawsuit happening I would be happy to hand over all of my documentation and correspondence with Pearson, my tutors, etc.
Maureen, I sympathize. I once tried to hold Pearson to task regarding how essays were being scored. They offered no transparency whatsoever regarding the process, the presence of humans (or lack therof), or the rubrics being used to score the exams. A completely closed process. Not even my state BOE seemed to have a “path” to the answers I was seeking.
This scam has been around a very long time – when I applied for graduate schools after 20 years of teaching, I was required to take the GRE because it was SOP. Every school would allow me to begin a program on probation, based on my previous college grades & my teaching experience. I was even told that if my course grades were good, when I later took the GRE, that score wouldn’t even matter! However, every one of those colleges were GRE testing locations & as such received money for giving the test… the difference today is that these tests matter for certification, employment, etc. & Pearson’s & the colleges just continue to rake in the dough for every score that doesn’t meet some invalid criteria… the scam at its finest!
One major difference is that you knew before going into a program that you had to pass the GRE. This person did not now that passing this Pearson test was contingent upon receiving her degree. There basically will be nobody willing to pay the exorbitant education grad school fees over several years with a diploma contingent upon successfully taking a Pearson test upon completion and which must be passed to get the degree (all the while continuing to pay tuition even when coursework has been completed). That is insane!
artseagal – but I didn’t have to pass it! it didn’t matter – they still got their money – today certification & employment hinge on an invalid test score – you are so very right about insane! And back then, requirements didn’t change in the middle of a program… unless you took longer than expected to complete the program! Money, money, money… all at the cost of our future teachers! Will there be anybody who will even want to pursue this field when it is will be so difficult to enter the profession, let alone continue to make a living?
I had to take the GRE for a doctoral program and when I interviewed one of the first questions asked was “Why are you applying here and not Washington University or St. Louis University?” (the here being one of the four flagship University of Missouri’s schools-St. Louis). I told them because I couldn’t afford those schools and that I liked what the two professors (one of whom was also a school board member in my district) were emphasizing, i.e., critical pedagogy, philosphy of ed, Critical Enquiry, etc. . . and not just the supposed “how to” of administration.
“I welcome school reform…” That was your first mistake. I passed this test the first time I took it largely by picking the answer that seemed the most incorrect, which was not always easy since usually all answers were plausibly correct. When I finished, I didn’t know how I did; I strongly suspected I had failed. No one left the testing room with a “yeah, I nailed it!” attitude. They couldn’t have. To describe the test as ambiguous doesn’t quite do it justice. Welcome to “rigor,” Pearson style.
That is so scary because what recourses does she have??? How can this be changed??? >
Do yourself a favor. Read Diane Ravitch’s blog no her books. It will help you to understand what is being done to you…and education in general.
I am in my 33rd year of teaching, and because I went to art for a bit, I was not grandfathered in to be a highly qualified teacher in a Title I school. So, when I went back to the classroom, I had to take the Elementary Education K-6 test to be qualified. Ludicrous! I took it yesterday, and I passed simply because I am a very good test taker and extremely talented at puzzles. Seriously! I took courses in how to construct tests when I went to school, and I found so many examples of NEVER DO THIS WHEN YOU MAKE A TEST. They use words and phrases that are extremely high level, just to make the test look like they’re increasing the “rigor” when in fact it fails to mask the horrible questions and answers that they have created.
Being a teacher is so much more than those tests could possibly measure. I’m so sorry you are going through this, but glad that your eyes are being opened to what we who have been in education so long see as the attack on our public education system, especially our educators and students.
Do yourself a favor, Kristen: Disavow yourself of your notion “Being a teacher is so much more than those tests could possibly measure.”
Those tests “measure” absolutely NOTHING. They are not measuring devices, there is no standard nor standard of measurement against which a measuring device can be calculated. That we can supposedly “measure” anything in the teaching and learning process is just one of the many errors and falsehoods in modern education discourse.
Remember: There is no measuring in the teaching and learning process!! (ya know kind of like “there is no crying in . . . )
This ad nauseam testing nonsense will only stop when class action and Qui Tam law suits are filed. That’s how Pearson and the chief lobbyists like Sandy Kress who started the “accountability” movement in Texas will be stopped in every state. Whistleblowers must come forward.
Crash Test
http://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/crash-test/
I agree. Let us stop being the victims. Teachers it is about time to stop talking to each other and start talking to the public and the world. A class action and Qui Tam law suit is the only way we are going to stop this practice and save education.
From Wiki:
In common law, a writ of qui tam is a writ whereby a private individual who assists a prosecution can receive all or part of any penalty imposed. Its name is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase qui tam pro domino rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur, meaning “[he] who sues in this matter for the king as well as for himself.”
The writ fell into disuse in England and Wales following the Common Informers Act 1951 but remains current in the United States under the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq., which allows a private individual, or “whistleblower,” with knowledge of past or present fraud committed against the federal government to bring suit on its behalf.
The False Claims Act (31 U.S.C. §§ 3729–3733, also called the “Lincoln Law”) is an American federal law which allows people who are not affiliated with the government to file actions against federal contractors claiming fraud against the government. The act of filing such actions is informally called “whistleblowing.” Persons filing under the Act stand to receive a portion (usually about 15-25 percent) of any recovered damages. The Act provides a legal tool to counteract fraudulent billings turned in to the Federal Government. Claims under the law have been filed by persons with insider knowledge of false claims which have typically involved health care, military, or other government spending programs.
The provision allows a private person, known as a “relator,” to bring a lawsuit on behalf of the United States, where the private detective or other person has information that the named defendant has knowingly submitted or caused the submission of false or fraudulent claims to the United States. The relator need not have been personally harmed by the defendant’s conduct; instead, the relator is recognized as receiving legal standing to sue by way of a “partial assignment” to the relator of the injury to the government caused by the alleged fraud.[3] The information must not be public knowledge, unless the relator qualifies as an “original source.”[4]
Duane is correct. I filed this Qui Tam suit against 7 Virginia school districts for defrauding the US Dept of Education.
The US gov’t gets a chance to prosecute first. If they decline, the relator can prosecute on behalf of the US on their own. Any proceeds won are tripled and go to the US. The relator gets anywhere between 15% and 30% depending on the facts and who prosecutes.
When I met with 2 Dept of Education attorneys (didn’t know they would be there) and the Asst US Attorney about my case down in Alexandria, there was no disagreement that fraud had occurred. The question was only about whether we had a cooperative witness (US Dept of Ed wanted to let it go since the new law had been passed), whether it was Virginia or the districts who were primarily guilty, and whether there was the will to prosecute. After about an hour and a half discussion, it was clear they just wanted this to go away. Senator Tim Kaine’s wife, Anne Holton, is the Secretary of Education to Gov McAuliffe. So there is strong resistance to holding anyone accountable for the outright fraud that was perpetrated.
Note the exhibits (the 20-something’s) in which used FOIA to get nearly every district to admit to me they were not using SGPs in any way shape or form in direct contradiction to ESEA. The only district I found to use SGPs was Prince William County. I found a template online and modified it with the facts of my case. However, if you have a good case, attorneys will typically take it on contingency. I didn’t inquire with an attorney but given the fact that Virginia received $40M/year from ESEA and triple damages were in play, it was a potentially large award.
In any case, have fun!
Virginia,
I have given you lots of space, but you are abusing the four posts a day limit I set a while back.
Interesting stuff there vsgp! While I don’t agree at all with your reliance on SGPs due to validity issues with educational standards and standardized testing I have to applaud you for standing up for what you believe to be the right course of action not taken by the various education authorities. It will be interesting to see how this all comes out.
I put the wiki info up so that people (like myself) who had never heard of that process might learn, understand and perhaps even use it as a mechanism to insure proper legal actions by all.
Facts from Florida:
FCAT Administrators Pay Big Money to Lobby Legislators
https://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2012/06/29/fcat-administrators-pay-big-money-to-lobby-legislators/
“WFTV confirmed Pearson does not donate to individual legislators, but has donated to political action committees that have pushed lawmakers to increase testing and raise the standards.
Pearson uses the lobbying firm Uhlfelder & Associates.”
Apply for a job at a charter school. There are charters schools in southern Florida that have Principals and APs that aren’t on the FLDOE certification website as having been certified in Educational Leadership.
You do not need an administrative or teaching certification of any kind to work in charter schools. Remember, most of these schools are in poor neighborhoods where anyone with a pulse can take the job as teacher or Principal.
“Educational Leadership” the oxymoron.
I’m afraid this teacher’s story will be very similar to those of high school students who will now have to “pass” the PARCC test in order to graduate.
Now we will see law suits. Parents will not tolerate this practice.
I can’t speak to this test, but I CAN speak to the quality of Pearson’s tests that are foisted upon students. When my district invested in Pearson’s reading program, they were assured we would be obtaining reliable data upon which to base further instruction. The problems began with the very first test. Many of the multiple choice questions could be answered with ANY of the four options given. Parents were tearing their hair out. One dad, who was an attorney, came in and asked what he could do to get his daughter OUT of the program. She was frustrated when she got an answer wrong and beginning to have physical illnesses as a result – I couldn’t explain to her why her answers were wrong and the Pearson answer was correct – and he, after reviewing the material and the test couldn’t either. He looked at me and said, “We have six degrees between us and we can’t answer a grade six reading test? WTH????” The teachers spent hours of after-work time trying to decide which answer was actually correct. Pearson was ZERO help – all we got was an answer that the tests were checked thoroughly for accuracy and reliability before being released. By the time we got to the third unit test, I had students throwing up on test day. I wound up taking the test to the superintendent to show him that we had just completed a unit on teaching objects of prepositions, direct objects, and indirect objects and the students had test questions on adverbs (which would not be taught until unit six.) The staff wound up having to write their OWN test questions. Fast forward a few years and the staff has obliterated the Pearson grammar and writing programs, revised the reading program, and created their own tests and supplemental activities. With Pearson in charge of Common Core materials, is the process just going to again? After reading this blog entry, I have come to the conclusion that Pearson cannot write a fair test question to save their souls.
I am so sorry you are going through this craziness. Others have already given good ideas and information so all I will offer is my condolences for your having to deal with the arrogant, greedy, power hungry corporations and groups that don’t care about education at all. I hope you pass this idiotic test this time and can get on with your career. We are losing too many good teachers to this lunacy.
I too have been dealing with taking the middle school math portion several times with failure. I have told colleagues that the test is bias and is not intended to certify teachers who have spent months in a classroom but to make individuals question their abilities to teach. I have been given a provisional for 1.5 years with constant growth from my students but yet this freaking test has made me question my decision to teach. This brings the question who will teach our children COMPUTERS WITH NO PERSONAL INTERACTION TO PUSH OR CHALLENGE OUR STUDENTS IN A WAY THAT A COMPUTER CAN’T do. Yes it can give the answers with only one version that has been input into the program. I’m very afraid of what lies ahead for future students when systems are in place to prompt failure.
ConcernedMJ: Have you passed your certification exam yet? If not, please write to me at cantpassthefele3.0@gmail.com
I’ve been a teacher for 17 years, teaching middle school math for the past 5 years.
I’ve taken the Math 6-12 exam 3 times in the past 4 years. I’ve missed passing the exam each time by 2 questions! I’ve gone back and taken 7 college math classes (all applicable to the exam), passing with A’s each time. But I can’t pass their test!!! I’ve now paid a total of $680 to take the exam these 3 times. I would LOVE to know what I’m not getting right, but it’s $200 and a 2-hour drive to Orlando for a score-justification session. RIDICULOUS!!!
Suckah!!
Sorry, just funnin ya, please take with the spirit intended (not as an insult).
I’ve also taken the Math portion of the exam several times. To be exact nine times paying 150.00 dollars each time. Not mentioning the high level of stress the cost for tutoring and the time I have invested to end up getting the same score. Is curious how my score has been 188 four different times. I am going for my last attempt (10) by the end of this month. I have paid over $1,500 on testing and still my job depends on a test… Not only my job but my two kids attending college, bills, and my family. I am greatful for this blog and glad to know that I am not alone.
Hello, Luz:
You are one of the many people who, since I wrote my original entry in this blog back in March this year, are extremely frustrated about this certification exam and the fact that we keep missing the mark by 2 or 3 miserable points. Please, join the discussion at my Facebook page Can’t Pass the FELE 3.0. I created the page as a way to vent, exchange ideas and advocate for each other. We must find a way for the state to listen to us and pay attention to the fact that this examinations are creating financial issues for many aspiring teachers and administrators. Meet me at Can’t Pass the FELE 3.0 and let’s continue talking and planning to bring this to the state. Hope to see you there.
P.Reeves: Were you ever able to pass your exam? If not yet, please write to me at cantpassthefele3.0@gmail.com
This person needs to get a lawyer and threaten to sue the university. If no one can show you the policy that requires enrollment, then it probably does not exist.
What a crock!!! This is a Catch 22 from Hell.
Good luck.
Are schools, universities, and states unable to write and deliver their own tests? Why the constant need to outsource this?
Diane, as your readers know, I am a big fan of your blog. But you clearly outdid yourself this time. In one simple post, you highlighted so many issues:
1. Many of us have argued that so many teachers simply don’t have the aptitude or the knowledge to teach their given subject to K-12 students. This teacher’s inability to pass a simple test proves that point. We need to upgrade the quality of so many current teachers.
2. Many of us have argued that grade inflation, be it in education schools or among teachers’ subject grades, is rampant. This post clearly proves that point as the previous teacher certification exam was a joke. If this teacher cannot simply pass (not achieve outstanding or even above average) the exam in four tries, but easily passed the previous version, can there be a more illustrative example regarding why rigorous standards are needed? And her teachers were giving her 100% scores!!!! This is why education degrees aren’t worth the paper on which they are printed.
3. We are wasting money in subsidizing these irrelevant higher education degrees. She paid $70K for a masters degree. It’s simply not credible that she will receive $70K in value, be it increased salary or improved effectiveness. She could likely have reviewed free online seminars and achieved the same results. These degrees are a scam.
4. And then lastly, she claims the test is racist rather than accept responsibility for not passing. She offers no evidence that minorities have failed every single instance of this test but then asserts the test is “rigged” against these minorities.
I applaud this post for its relevance to so many issues. As always, keep them coming…
If only 1 in 4 candidates are passing the test, it’s the test! Anyone can write a bad test – if my really bright students – National Merit Scholars (who later attended Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Northwestern & the University of Chicago) ever missed a question, you’d better believe I was checking out that question! Did it indicate a bad question or did I neglect to teach that concept well? I did want to keep some of those questions because they were challenging, but you’d better believe that I really analyzed them! And in what profession do we not want further education? My district provides good inservice programs as well as encourages collaboration with other teachers, but the teachers need to get back in the classroom to learn about new methods, content, & curriculum, as well as to create new lesson plans… and it is a bonus that it keeps teachers from being stuck in a rut! For many of us, it rejuvenated & encouraged us to constantly keep improving!
formercheesehead, it is quite obvious that you did not attend an elite STEM school. In those top universities that your former prized students will attend, many professors AIM for an average score of 70 to determine who really understands and can apply the material. Do you really think those students are not trying their best or studying for such tests? Yet those tests result in many questions missed by your most promising students. Your claim that a single missed question indicates the test may be flawed is ludicrous and only exists in the land of egregious grade inflation.
Hey, Diane, so I got off my a** and actually looked up what the FELE measures. It turns out that it evaluates test takers on their ability to interpret VAMs!!! Given my inability to explain basic VAM concepts to your readers over the last year, I am shocked that even 25% were able to pass. You see, evaluating data requires logic. It requires an analyst to understand what information is necessary and/or sufficient. That is not always obvious to a non-STEM major who has never been required to conduct such rigorous analysis. Maybe the test takers who fail should go get a STEM degree first. I’m sure they’ll be able to pass after that!
Virginia, I suppose if I took the Florida Leadership test, I too would fail, because I would say that VAM is junk science. So they are measuring your compliance?
Touche. But you would probably be eligible for their $10K teacher bonus for SAT scores. Something tells me the same cannot be said for the aggrieved teacher in this post.
One in four students are passing the test…that is a big problem.
https://davidrtayloreducation.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/if-half-of-your-students-failed-a-test/
Ay ay ay ay ay, vsgp! Same ol same ol (boy am I being nice today) utter logical nonsense with your faith in standardized testing and even university level testing and grading. Por favor, no nos moleste con esa basura.
virginia – I don’t know why any of us even bother to respond to your comments since, according to you, if we didn’t attend an elite STEM school, we can’t have common sense or logic – I will repeat – If only 1 in 4 pass a test, there is a problem! There is a huge difference between difficult questions & trick questions or poorly worded ones – of course, one poor question doesn’t mean a test is hopelessly flawed, but when only 25% pass… sorry, not buying it!
Once again, formercheesehead, demonstrates his lack of logical ability.
The allegation was that 1 out of 4 who currently take the test pass. If we were to look at the statistics for the PARCC, then less than 1 out of 4 disadvantaged kids would be deemed proficient. In fact, if we looked at the older, much less vigorous state tests, I’m sure we could find populations in which less than 1 out of 4 passed.
Thus, your implicit assumption is that teachers are capable of passing the test with ease. But we know the new tests require analysis of data. This is a skill which is foreign to most teachers today. I’m sure I can provide you a population who could pass the test after reviewing the preparatory material (see Engineering or Science majors). But apparently, the population of teachers who have historically taken this test are having problems. The content is different but you expect the same results. Please explain to me how that demonstrates you have any credibility whatsoever.
At least Diane is honest in that she would refute the underlying question. Duane probably wouldn’t even answer question 1 but launch directly into an esoteric discussion of Wilson and why we are all living in the “matrix”. Btw, you don’t need to attend a STEM school to complete this test. Peter Thiel doesn’t even think folks should attend college. I’m partial to his view. But keep on telling yourself that when you make a basic mistake, you can write it off on “the man” without having to admit culpability. You’ve probably been doing this your whole life so why stop now?
Virginia,
Test scores are part of a teacher’s job but only a part. If Pearson makes the test so hard that only 1 in 4 can pass it, then there will be a major teacher shortage. Districts will then hire teachers with emergency credentials who never took the test or failed it. That doesn’t solve the problem. You seem to think there is a huge reservoir of engineering majors who are eager to teach. Where are they? Will they work for a teacher’s salary? Will they know how to manage 28 fifth graders?
Diane, I may have misread the purpose of FELE but I thought it was a test for prospective administrators. These are the officials who are supposed to be supporting teachers in analyzing student growth data. If we don’t have higher standards for administrators, how can we expect teachers to sift through and utilize the (sometimes) complex conclusions from that data?
I could be wrong but I thought there was wide agreement among all of your readers that despite what any of us think of the quality of teachers, the overall quality of current K-12 administrators is abysmal!
Hello, Virginia:
I thank you for your feedback.
I think you misunderstood. I am not talking about the teacher certification exam. I am already certified in two areas, and have been teaching for 13 years. What I am doing is trying to get certified in educational leadership to move up the ladder into administration. I did not take the older exam. I took the new one. The old test was mostly based on factual stuff. I know because I have seen those preps (which are completely outdated now). The new one focuses more on clinical practice and theory application, which is completely fine with me. I am not one to look for the easiest route out of anything. Before the new changes to the test, prior to 2014, 86% of those who took the old exam passed first time. Now, since 2015 to be exact, 86% are failing! Why? This change alone says a lot about the exam itself. Rigor is one thing, but I think the data supports my argument that something is wrong with the test itself. My department dean was the one who shared these figures with me based on a meeting deans throughout the state had with the state last fall. These numbers are not even published yet.
I do take responsibility for my own actions. I am studying constantly in order to pass this test. For the past year, I am repeating courses that the university revamped after they realized that a number of candidates could not pass areas of the new exam. I am not the only one having issues with passing the new FELE 3.0. I am the one asking the university the most questions though. The university is bracing itself for future test takers who will not be able to pass sections of the exam. The university admitted to me last month that at least one of their courses was not up to par, dismissed the previous professor, and hired a new one to teach that course. I am currently retaking that course with the new professor. The reason they shared this information with me is because I found out about a report universities receive showing their program’s areas of weakness (and a report they refuse to share openly with the students). It’s called the FTCE/FELE Annual Administration and Technical Report which Pearson sends to the state every year. I don’t know who sends the report to the universities. I can only think it’s Pearson.
The same professor who was assigned as my adviser received numerous feedback from most candidates these past two years as being a very poor professor. Several students avoided his courses and preferred to travel to a satellite campus in another county to take the same courses with other professors. I couldn’t do that, and I gave him the benefit of the doubt, which is entirely my own fault, but this kind act on my part is not helping me pass the exam to this day. The problem remains that he nor anyone else can tell me what to focus on to pass the exam. They don’t know what I may be doing wrong. How could this be? Instead, he’s telling me I suffer from test anxiety.
My 100% were very well deserved and the grades were not inflated. I worked VERY hard to pass my classes. The problem continues to be the Pearson exam itself. I think one contributor above nailed it when he wrote “Many of the multiple choice questions could be answered with ANY of the four options given.” I find that with this FELE 3.0, all of the multiple choice answers can be answered with 3 of the options from the 4 given. It’s just that there is only one correct Pearson answer. The test is definitely ambiguous.
Regarding Pearson being racist, even my own adviser insists that there are numerous studies about that. Perhaps this is his way of justifying his own shortcomings as a professor, but there you have it. I would HATE to think that the exam is rigged in such a way. I wrote that in response to what I read from another contributor and to what my adviser keeps telling me. If this is the case, then minorities will forever be in a constant struggle to prove their worthiness in this country. If anyone has read Arthur R. Jensen’s (1980) Bias in Mental Testing, I would appreciate the input. Here are two other articles I found about that subject:
http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2015/03/19/aspiring-black-and-hispanic-teaches-struggle-on-new-tests-data-show-prompting-new-debate/#.VuGi_TEjP-U
http://ideas.time.com/2012/10/11/why-its-time-to-get-rid-of-standardized-tests/
“Now, administrators are called to be instructional leaders rather than the building managers they once were. This is fine with me; I agree with all of that. I agree that rigor needs to be increased in most classrooms and that students must be challenged. I welcome school reform. . . ”
And that author’s statement shows that they aren’t qualified to be and administrator. Her belief in “school reform” indicates a lack of knowledge of pedagogy. What kind of masters level courses has she been taking that she would still believe in “school reform”?? She ought to demand her money back from the university, that obviously has done a piss poor job of educating her.
My advice, stop now, regroup, and quicky work on paying off that debt (believe me I know how difficult it is to pay off debt on a teacher’s salary). The sooner you start at it (lowering your debt) the better. Being in debt is being in slavery. (and yes, I know that seems outrageous, get over it)
Pearson is the absolute worst. I was one of the very first people to take their NES high school “professional knowledge” exam that Arizona is now requiring. So far, Pearson has only been able to con 7 other states into requiring it. Lucky me.
Scheduling an exam should have been easy, as it’s administered online IN their own testing center. But apparently, they still want to sit groups of the same test takers in the same room. But no. I found out that I had one chance (and once chance only) to meet the deadline for my certificate renewal. It was one week away.
When I showed up at the testing center, I was astounded at how rudely I was treated by the staff. I was a half hour early, and would not be called into an exam room for at least another 25 minutes, so I pulled out my notes and began to review them. A clerk yelled at me to put all of my belongings into my assigned locker. No study materials allowed in the waiting room. And I couldn’t leave to go sit outside, as I was already checked in. In contrast, a group of oncologists were also there to take a board certification exam. They were all offered beverages, referred to as “Doctor”, and allowed to look at any papers they wished to review. They could even chat on their phones. The teachers in the room were treated like annoying garbage.
The exam itself was administered on a cheap computer with a cheap keyboard. The screens offered us no user feedback to indicate if we could go back to prior pages and change our answers. When I raised my hand to ask if I was allowed to go backwards, I discovered that no one was sitting in the control room “monitoring” us. I’d been told not to back away from my computer, and to raise my hand if there were any problems. 15 minutes later, the same agitated man that yelled at me before came in and said he’d have to find out. “Like dude, don’t you freaking know?” Anyhow, that burned 15 of my precious minutes, and I ended up using every minute given to me. I had to assume my answers were locked in already.
Anyhow, I did pass on the first try, but I will say this: This exam went REALLY deep on a few very specific education theories (and their proponents). I was a direct-entry CTE teacher, so I had no education courses to fall back upon. I had to virtually devour Pearon’s very expensive test-prep materials to even have a chance. I studied them up and down, over and over again. Most intense study week of my life. And I’d never heard of any of these theories or methods before.
What concerned me were the essays. Two of them. I was asked to read two classroom scenarios and describe how these major educational theories applied to the specific situations. I was very fresh on the theories and crafted two excellent essays. I was stunned to find out that my scores were passing on each, but well below the averages of my exam questions. I contacted Pearson to gain some insight as to how these exams were scored. You know, a criteria, a rubric, anything. I was blown away that they offered not one iota of transparency on the grading process. Was it graded by humans? Software? The scores just didn’t make any sense, and they didn’t reference anything I’d written. Just some meaningless score. It turned out, no one answering the phones at Pearson had any idea where to direct my questions. The AZ DOE was of no help either.
Pearson has somehow lobbied their way into holding a very powerful niche in education. If they’re not negotiating exclusive deals on textbooks and online edu-content, then they’re busy getting themselves exclusives on testing. And with nobody keeping them in check. They’re virtually omnipotent. I hate them,
If you want more insight about Pearson, one must look no further than any student bookstore in the Maricopa Community College system (there’s 10 of them). Pearson titles absolutely dominate the shelves. How? Because they’ve negotiated deals for them to be preferred content providers for the lion’s share of courses taught. Forget the days of an adjunct instructor specifying their own preferred texts. No. Now a new adjunct will be given a course outline, and that outline already specifies (how convenient!) the Pearson-authored textbook.
I remember the flack I received when I told my students that they could return their books to the bookstore, as I did not require them. You see, students no longer wait for the first day of class. They look at the (conveniently prepared) online syllabus (written by the college) and just buy the books.
And forget buying them used on eBay. These are “custom” books. Not custom as in written specifically FOR the courses in question, but “custom” in that slight changes have been made to the sequential order in which content has been presented. You see, that allows them to assign a specific ISBN number each semester, preventing the kids from “trafficking” in used books.
Pearson is evil.
Often at universities the right hand doesn’t know what the left-hand is doing – and money is involved. When I was writing my thesis, neither my department head nor advisor knew that students are supposed to pay for an extra thesis “class” given not by their department, but by the administration office. Yet it had no professor and didn’t entail either assignments or attendance.
Now add Pearson to those cashing in on students. Pearson’s in-house literature declares that their mission is to create a network of seamless education “services” covering the globe K through 12. For the benefit of humanity, of course. Never mind if that were true, their tests would be more affordable, of better quality and research-based.
When Gates talked the USDOE into choosing a single company to “scale” our entire education system, he invited the fox to guard the henhouse.
As I see it, here is the only way out:
1. Educate teachers and the public – thank you, Diane!
2. Talk to your friends, family and neighbors.
3. Write to your local newspaper.
4. Speak up at school board or PTA meetings.
5. Join or create a local group to address these issues.
6. Use social media to “like” Diane Ravitch and similar sites.
7. Somebody, please sue these abusers of students’ minds and everyone’s pocketbooks.
Florida Teacher, I am so sorry you are going through this. Good luck!
I thank all of you who wrote an answer to my post, and for the good wishes. I read every single one and I think I will act on some of the ideas suggested.
To answer Lloyd’s comment: The university is certainly at fault for buying into the Pearson test or being bribed into it, but, correct me if I’m wrong, I think she keeps paying tuition to avoid making payments for her student debt until she earns her masters and returns to the workforce—if she left the workforce, that isn’t clear to me. The payments on that $70k is probably more than the tuition.”
No. I was clearly told by my department dean that I must be enrolled, taking a minimum of 2 credits at the university per semester at the time I pass the exam. Since I cannot pay the tuition without a loan (not on a teacher’s salary), and since I cannot receive the loan unless I take over 5 credits per semester (my dean is aware of this), I have to take the loan. I took a one year personal leave to dedicate to my studies when I didn’t pass the exam the first time last year. My dean doesn’t care if I have to pay a loan or not. She keeps telling me to enroll in direct research studies until I pass this exam, paying tuition in the meantime, although I do not agree with this policy at all.
The “direct research” really amounts to what I wrote to “virginiasgp”: For the past year, I am repeating courses that the university revamped after they realized that a number of candidates could not pass areas of the new exam. I am not the only one having issues with passing the new FELE 3.0. I am the one asking the university the most questions though. The university is bracing itself for future test takers who will not be able to pass sections of the exam. The university admitted to me last month that at least one of their courses was not up to par, dismissed the previous professor, and hired a new one to teach that course. I am currently retaking that course with the new professor. The reason they shared this information with me is because I found out about a report universities receive showing their program’s areas of weakness (and a report they refuse to share openly with the students). I don’t know who sends the report to the universities. I can only think it’s Pearson as test giver.
To answer artseagal’s feedback to formercheesehead: One major difference is that you knew before going into a program that you had to pass the GRE. This person did not now that passing this Pearson test was contingent upon receiving her degree. There basically will be nobody willing to pay the exorbitant education grad school fees over several years with a diploma contingent upon successfully taking a Pearson test upon completion and which must be passed to get the degree (all the while continuing to pay tuition even when coursework has been completed). That is insane!
The university did have a disclaimer under graduation requirements that simply read “Evidence of passage of the FELE.” However, this was not emphasized AT ALL during the 2 years of study by any of the professors. It only resurfaced after I failed the exam the first time and my adviser told me to “read the fine print”.
After reading everyone’s feedback, I think the problem lies between the prep at the university and the state exam itself. Like some of you said, if 1 in 4 candidates are not passing the test, then the problem must be the test. Let me reiterate that the FELE 3.0 is a very new exam, and not even Pearson has created prep books for it yet. It’s that new. This seems to be happening all over Florida and in other states as well. Thanks again.
Dear “Frustrated teacher in Florida”:
I DEEPLY believe that you need to seek out (and invest in) an attorney at this point. Putting further money into your tuition is a “black hole” right now. You don’t even know if your exam attempts have been competently scored by “competent authority”. At the very least, you deserve some transparency into how your exam attempts were scored. An attorney will help you get that. I suspect that you might even be able to claim significant damages. If money is an issue (I’m guessing that it is), consider getting in touch with your state’s union leadership team and try making a pitch for them to consider taking up your case. Even if you’re not a member yet. Why do I suggest this? Because many of their members go back to school for graduate work and have to take similar exams for advancement into administration, and probably from the same university. There just might be something “in it” for them (and their members).
Your situation exposes a VERY serious problem, and that is the inappropriate relationship that has developed between your university program and Pearson. Pearson has a serious conflict of interest, and they have a financial incentive to flunk exam takers (and no accountability for ther actions). Your education (and what you’ve achieved within it) has absolutely nothing to do with what SHOULD be the separate relationship between Florida’s education department and whomever they entrust to administer the exam(s). Getting a degree does not make you a teacher, but having a degree does (often) make you employable in education (even if not inside a classroom).
I’m going to use another career field as an example. Medicine. People might not realize that there are many medical school graduates each year who fail to immediately secure residencies in a specialty of practice. Does that mean they’ve not earned those MD or DO degrees? Not at all. Pharmaceutical companies regularly employ highly skilled medical school grads who failed to match with a residency, and they’re not practicing physicians. But they often become high earning research scientists.
First of all, I don’t think you should be deprived of your degree, and certainly not because some opaque company (like Pearson) has paid some person $12 an hour to rip through your exam scoring, with a likely incentive to fail a certain percentage of persons.
I EMPLORE you to stop sinking any more money into the university OR the exam at this point. I think you can probably get this situation settled. You need to toughen up and stand up for yourself. You’ve been damaged, and your livelihood put at risk. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
Yeah, the more I read, and the more I compare this to my own “Pearson experience”, the more I believe that Pearson needs to be forced to open-up on scoring processes, and I think exam takers (upon being given said transparency) should be given an avenue of appeal. You’re being held in limbo.
And now that I’ve read your reply to virginiaasgp, I can see that you’re already a teacher. You’re pursuing an advanced degree in educational leadership. I presume you want to work in school administration, and for that, your state requires the FELE 3.0. But that’s a STATE requirement. It really has nothing to do with the coursework at the university that qualified you to sit for it in the first place. I personally believe that the university should eliminate FELE exam passage as a graduation requirement. Their program’s reputation for cranking out employed, working school administrators is not your concern. And you should have the flexibility to decide (later) that you never really wanted to work as a school administrator in the first place. What if you (ironically) wanted to go for a job at Pearson? Do you think they really care if you’ve been a principal?
There are plenty of law school grads (actual JDs) who work in the insurance and biotech industries who never took the bar exam (never part of their plan either).
Arizona (and Governer Ducey): Pearson sends you their most sincere regards. They’ll soon have L O T S of pricey exams to choose from. If your students score poorly this year, change it up and roll the dice with a new exam next year (for a nominal fee)!
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2016/03/08/arizona-menu-standardized-tests-what-it-means-students-parents/81455944/
Patrick:
Your insight about my situation hit right on the mark. What you said is the exact argument I have presented to the university; from what I choose to do with my diploma, to the doctor and the lawyer argument. I thank you again for your advice.
The University really has no interest (or business) in what you plan to do with your degree post-graduation. The “intended purpose” of the FELE exam is to show Florida state regulators that you possess the required knowledge to work as an administrator within that state. The exam has no interest with the university, and most importantly, the university has no interest with the exam. They are separate interests for good reason.
But these arguments are pointless when spoken between us. What you need right now is a “pit-bull-tough” attorney who isn’t afraid to use litigation to expose the stupidity of the university’s position. Quit trying to appeal to the university’s sense of reason. They don’t have one.
Not even Harvard Law requires its students to pass a bar exam in order to qualify for a diploma!
A few points of clarification. Pearson did not decide to revise the FELE, the Florida Department of Education did. Pearson does not set passing scores, the DOE does. Pearson does not set exam fees, the state does. Pearson does not determine the test-taking policies, the DOE does. Pearson worked as a contractor along with hundreds of Florida educational leaders and professors in revising the exams, including committees who reviewed every question for potential bias issues. All test questions were reviewed statistically for internal problems. There is a process for challenging your score and for challenging any specific test question.
Yes Dawn, you’ve parroted back (pretty much) the standard Pearson defensive position used when people criticize them and their certification exams. “It’s all the state”.
Pearson creates the exam questions, suggests the passing score rates, suggests the fees (including the determination of which party gets which cut), suggests the test-taking policies, puts together the review committees, conducts the statistical analysis. Everything.
And they even put it all together in one convenient package, so when the state board of education meets, one member can move that the exam (and process) be approved. Another member can second, and the rest of the board can make a quick “rubber stamp” of a vote. That’s how it happens.
So Dawn, Tell our friend here how to gain access to the questions she supposedly got wrong. Spell-out the process for challenging the score. That hasn’t exactly been transparent.
Patrick–
Pearson does not create the exam questions. They are created (i.e., written) by Florida educators. Pearson editors and psychometricians do review and edit them for consistency and clarity.
Pearson psychometricians consult in the standard setting process, in which Florida educators recommend an initial passing score and FDOE makes a recommendation to the Board (Pearson has nothing to do with deciding how the Board conducts its business).
Pearson assists in recruiting committee members, who all must be approved by FDOE. Pearson also provides committee facilitators who must follow carefully procedures and processes outlined by FDOE.
Pearson psychometricians work with FDOE psychometricians throughout the statistical analysis process.
Linked is a description of the score verification process, found through a five second Google search.
http://www.fldoe.org/accountability/assessments/postsecondary-assessment/ftce/scoring-information/score-verification-sessions.stml
“Pearson psychometricians consult in the standard setting process, in which Florida educators recommend an initial passing score and FDOE makes a recommendation to the Board (Pearson has nothing to do with deciding how the Board conducts its business).”
Dawn, now you are having your way with the truth.
Please tell me what part of what I said is not the truth. Is it that Pearson staff consult with FDOE staff? They do. Is it that Florida educators recommend the initial passing score through a standard-setting process? They do. Is it that Pearson has no involvement in determining how the state board conducts its business? They do not.
Who are you, Dawn? Who do you represent?
Who I am is an existential question that I choose not to delve into on an Internet blog. Whom I represent is easy: me. Me only.
If the question you are asking is why do I seem to be defending a giant, evil corporation that wants to take over the world, I will explain. It seems to me that increasingly people are unable to ascribe their failures to themselves. It has become too easy to blame big banks, Wall Street, government, big business, whomever; and they are enabled by people who uncritically jump on their bandwagons without doing any research or asking any penetrating questions. Someone says a business does something objectionable and others pile on without asking whether the assertion is true. The information I mentioned is readily found on FDOE websites, presentations, technical reports, etc. But why bother to verify when you can demonize?
I’m sorry that the OP has not passed a test. Maybe she needs to study more, maybe she simply doesn’t test well, maybe she doesn’t actually possess the knowledge necessary for the profession–I can’t know or say. If it were me, I’d try to find out which it was and remedy it, not blame some corporate conspiracy. YMMV
To refer to Pearson’s workers as “psychometricians” (wow, a contraction of THREE words) says to me that you either work there, or work very close to this process (and seek to defend it).
I’m not playing the “Occupy Wall Street” card here by any means. Heck, I don’t even blame Pearson for taking full advantage of the laziness of America’s education’s leadership (and I mean that in a “wholesale” way… K-University, state dept of education, USDE, etc). I’ll even take back the “Pearson is evil” statement. They’re in business to make money, and they’ve got clients that are all-too-willing to absolve themselves of any real responsibility, and hand it over to an organization that knows how to extract profit from the public’s work.
But I very seriously doubt that this exam taker is getting a fair shake.
Hello, Dawn. I thank you for your feedback. I wrote to the blog about my experience out of pure desperation and frustration. Like I mentioned before, I take responsibility for my own actions and do take responsibility for my own shortcomings (after all, I am a learner). However, I strongly feel that something is out of place in the whole process of testing for this particular state exam. Let me put it to you this way and, if you care to, tell me what you think. I’d love to know. Imagine that:
1. You entered a graduate program in the summer of 2013 knowing that, after completing 36 credits, you would have to sit for a state exam. You pass every single one of your courses with the highest marks (100% and one course at 96%), with all your professors telling you for two straight years that you are a star student and a great candidate. You believe you are doing great and you are thankful for learning so much.
2. You sit for the exam near the end of the two-year program in February, confident you will pass it. You pass 3 of the 4 sections of the exam on your very first try. You sit with your program adviser to try to figure out what you need to know to pass the one subtest, using the report you received back from Pearson. You’ve missed the mark by 26 points. You both look at the two areas of the subtest in which you had the lowest scores. Your adviser, who’s one of your professors, is not quite sure what you may have done wrong and, confident that you will pass this exam soon, decides that you should just study the 15 questions that Pearson provides in their test preparation guide for that particular subtest which, of course, you’ve already studied. His main advice is that you need to look at the test from the state’s perspective.
3. Since you are a conscientious student and want to pass the exam next time, you take the initiative to do your own research and study from different resources that focus on the two areas you need to strengthen. You like and respect your adviser, but you feel that your adviser’s approach to the issue was not enough. Several weeks later, you feel ready and sit for the exam again, missing the mark by 3 points!
4. You go back to your adviser with the second test report after waiting the usual 3-4 weeks to receive it. Again, he wants to test you on the same 15 questions from the test preparation guide which, by now, you know questions and answers by heart. You start thinking that perhaps he has no clue as to how to guide you to prepare for this new version of the exam. You tell him that you feel what really helped you increase your points was the material you researched on your own to address the missed areas. You also tell him that other test prep resources you found on line (and paid for and studied just in case) seemed outdated and not quite aligned to the exams you took (a lot of factual questions versus the more theoretical questions of the new exam). He insists on retesting you on the 15 questions from the prep guide, just as before, and he also tells you to study several state-created modules he believes address the specific areas you missed. You study them diligently for weeks.
5. Around the same time, the dean calls you and your adviser into her office and the dean tells you that candidates failing the test seems to be a systemic issue happening all over the state. She shares that, while 84% of candidates used to pass the old exam the first try, 86% are now failing the exam on the first try, and deans from all over the state are concerned, so they soon will meet with the state to find out what’s going on. She also shares that a number of students at the university find themselves in the same predicament of retaking different parts of the exam multiple times. The dean also advises you to pay for and attend a seminar in another city that will help you prepare for the state exam. You attend the seminar that weekend and realize that the material from the seminar addresses the older exam and is not align to items you see on the new exam. You share this with your adviser and the dean afterwards. The dean tells you that exam questions you’ve seen before tend to come up again. They’re still confident you’ll pass soon.
6. It’s November now, and you sit for the exam a third time, after studying the state modules your adviser told you to study and after attending the seminar. Since you were so close to passing last time, you also go over your trusty research notes from before. However, you miss the mark by 8 points this time. This exam, by the way, was VERY different from the other two you already took.
7. You meet with your adviser and show him your third test report. This time, he asks you to show him the many research articles you studied from earlier in the year when you missed the mark by 3 points. He also tells you that he is in the process of overhauling two of his own courses. You share your research reluctantly because this is something he should have already known to guide YOU, but you share your long list of articles with him (and the dean) anyway. You ask him if there is a report the university may have received showing the program’s areas of weakness. He answers that most candidates statewide are not passing the written section of the exam (which you already passed nearly a year ago), and that is what the university will be focusing on. He adds that perhaps you’re not a very good test taker, that you’re thinking too much through the test, and that you’re suffering from test anxiety. He even takes you to the testing center of the university to see if they have any pointers for you on taking standardized tests. No help there. When you tell him you would like to challenge the exam because Pearson allows you to do so since you missed within 10 points of passing, your adviser tells you not to even bother to pay the $75 dollars to challenge it because, as you’ve also heard from others candidates who did so, Pearson just shows you the questions you missed and find their own justifications as to why your answers were wrong, not giving you the opportunity to challenge anything. Everyone you talked to who paid to challenge the exam tells you it was a waste of time and money. Besides, you have to wait much longer than 4 weeks to retest if you go that route. Your adviser insists you to take the exam as soon as you can and ‘get this done’ because ‘you’re so close to passing’.
8. You go back to the drawing board, and again you study your own trusty notes plus new resources you research on your own. You sit for the exam again in January, this time missing the mark by 3 points again! You’re beginning to trust your own research versus what your adviser tells you to study. However, your scores are still low in the very same sections as nearly a year ago.
9. You meet with your adviser a fourth time to discuss your test results. Again, you ask him to share with you the report that shows their program’s areas of weakness because you’re doubtful about the university’s instructional approach. He tells you this time that there is only one course the university is really concerned about. They hired a new professor for that course, and he wants you to retake that course (as well as one of his own courses which he tells you again he’s recently overhauled) to prepare you for the subtest. But he still wants you to take the exam as soon as you can.
10. Thirteen months have passed since you initially sat for the state exam and missed one of the 4 test areas. In the meantime, you’ve had to remain enrolled at the university 10 extra months because it is university (and state policy according to the dean) that you are enrolled at the university when you pass the exam. You are taking a loan, which is now at $70,000 due to the extra time you’ve had to remain enrolled. You are taking the courses they wanted you to retake and you find these courses are VERY different from the original courses you took. You’re waiting to see how you faired with the fifth exam.
Believe me when I say, Dawn, that part of my own research was to get into those same websites you mentioned, looking for any type of information that could help me pass this standardized test and looking to understand the test itself. I think I am a very fair person and I am not too quick to judge anyone (I wouldn’t want anyone to do that to me). But after all this that I have shared here, I am lacking a diploma for a master’s program I started in 2013, I am $70,000 in debt to Sally Mae, I have paid Pearson $1,125 dollars (paying the entire exam fee each time I take the test, not a subtest fee) to take one of their subtests (they lowered the cost for the one subtest most candidates are still failing), I have taken my own initiatives to find resources on my own that could help me pass the exam, and I remain resilient and hopeful, however frustrated. How much longer can I go not knowing when will I pass this test? I truly believe in my heart that universities were unaware of how different the new exam would be. The fact that my department saw the need to overhaul (as far as I know) 3 of their courses says a lot about the issue. I hope you can share your thoughts after reading this.
By psychometrician, I mean someone who has a doctorate in educational measurement or a related field (e.g., statistics). I’m quite sure only some of Pearson’s staff meet this criterion. Yes, I did study educational measurement in grad school, but that’s neither here nor there. I’m not sure what you mean by a fair shake. Was she treated any differently than any other candidate? If not, then it seems like a fair shake to me.
Q: And what should a group of “psychometricians” do when seeing their exam hit a fail rate of 76%?
A: Go into high school administration 😉
76% of the candidates are failing. A similar percentage to that of our high school students that are taking newly administered common-core based exams. Should we be depriving 76% of our kids their high school diplomas and refer them to the score verification process to rectify their shortcomings? Do we throw them under the bus and only look at the exam after hundreds of people end up in this poor lady’s situation? Have you no compassion? No. We do what we’re doing now. We pass them along.
It sounds to me like the problem is the “psychometricians” (yes spell-check… ignore that one) rather than the study habits of the candidates.
My little bar-graph display on the results analysis tool of my course assessment “dashboard” identifies weak questions load and clear. When I have a fail rate that high on a question, I know that the question requires a second look. In almost every situation (in a >50% fail rate), I can see where I’ve either written it poorly, or written poor detractors. What do I do? I pay attention to the situation in real time, and I make modifications to the scores of the affected students. Afterward, I go back and try to do better. It sounds like you guys sit there and just throw your peers under the bus and say “oh well, study harder!”
I don’t think that’s the right thing to do, and I don’t require of D.Ed (LOL) to realize this.
24 percent pass rate is shameful, period. The original blogger is right in her frustration. And, if you can not provide positive input and/or help, just stop replying.
Let’s not forget that these tests are based on a bell curve and the score that determines the failure rate has been predetermined before the test was administered. If the cut score was set to fail 76 percent of the students that took the test, that explains why so many failed.
If the autocratic, often fraudulent, cherry picking, opaque, publicly funded, private sector corporate charter school industry wants the community based, democratic, transparent, non profit, traditional public schools to look bad, then all they have to do is make the cut score for failure set high on purpose.
Because these Donald Trump clones have access to the scores from previous tests given in earlier years, they know exactly where they have to set the cut score to cause a large number of students to fail.
Diane wrote about that here: https://dianeravitch.net/2014/07/31/how-pearsons-common-core-tests-are-designed-to-fail-your-children/
I suspect that careful item analysis is undertaken after every test administration. Poorly performing items are replaced. Equating procedures ensure that each test form is of equivalent difficulty as preceding ones. Dif analysis is done. All psychometric psychobabble meaning that the science is attended to as carefully as can be done with any social science.
The issue we seem to be debating is political. Politicians mandated the test. Politicians approve the passing scores knowing full well what the pass rates will be. They get to crow, “High standards, blah, blah. Re-elect me.”
My level of compassion is frankly irrelevant. If I am going in for brain surgery (and many have suggested that I should), I would like to know that my surgeon has been certified by meeting high standards, not “passed along” owing to compassion for her struggles.
Here’s what FDOE says (I guess they call themselves FLDOE):
http://www.fldoe.org/accountability/assessments/postsecondary-assessment/ftce/
Hello Dawn: I originally posted this on March 25, 2016 at 5:02 pm, but have not heard from you. Perhaps you didn’t see it. I am still interested in your insight. —-
Hello, Dawn. I thank you for your feedback. I wrote to the blog about my experience out of pure desperation and frustration. Like I mentioned before, I take responsibility for my own actions and do take responsibility for my own shortcomings (after all, I am a learner). However, I strongly feel that something is out of place in the whole process of testing for this particular state exam. Let me put it to you this way and, if you care to, tell me what you think. I’d love to know. Imagine that:
1. You entered a graduate program in the summer of 2013 knowing that, after completing 36 credits, you would have to sit for a state exam. You pass every single one of your courses with the highest marks (100% and one course at 96%), with all your professors telling you for two straight years that you are a star student and a great candidate. You believe you are doing great and you are thankful for learning so much.
2. You sit for the exam near the end of the two-year program in February, confident you will pass it. You pass 3 of the 4 sections of the exam on your very first try. You sit with your program adviser to try to figure out what you need to know to pass the one subtest, using the report you received back from Pearson. You’ve missed the mark by 26 points. You both look at the two areas of the subtest in which you had the lowest scores. Your adviser, who’s one of your professors, is not quite sure what you may have done wrong and, confident that you will pass this exam soon, decides that you should just study the 15 questions that Pearson provides in their test preparation guide for that particular subtest which, of course, you’ve already studied. His main advice is that you need to look at the test from the state’s perspective.
3. Since you are a conscientious student and want to pass the exam next time, you take the initiative to do your own research and study from different resources that focus on the two areas you need to strengthen. You like and respect your adviser, but you feel that your adviser’s approach to the issue was not enough. Several weeks later, you feel ready and sit for the exam again, missing the mark by 3 points!
4. You go back to your adviser with the second test report after waiting the usual 3-4 weeks to receive it. Again, he wants to test you on the same 15 questions from the test preparation guide which, by now, you know questions and answers by heart. You start thinking that perhaps he has no clue as to how to guide you to prepare for this new version of the exam. You tell him that you feel what really helped you increase your points was the material you researched on your own to address the missed areas. You also tell him that other test prep resources you found on line (and paid for and studied just in case) seemed outdated and not quite aligned to the exams you took (a lot of factual questions versus the more theoretical questions of the new exam). He insists on retesting you on the 15 questions from the prep guide, just as before, and he also tells you to study several state-created modules he believes address the specific areas you missed. You study them diligently for weeks.
5. Around the same time, the dean calls you and your adviser into her office and the dean tells you that candidates failing the test seems to be a systemic issue happening all over the state. She shares that, while 84% of candidates used to pass the old exam the first try, 86% are now failing the exam on the first try, and deans from all over the state are concerned, so they soon will meet with the state to find out what’s going on. She also shares that a number of students at the university find themselves in the same predicament of retaking different parts of the exam multiple times. The dean also advises you to pay for and attend a seminar in another city that will help you prepare for the state exam. You attend the seminar that weekend and realize that the material from the seminar addresses the older exam and is not align to items you see on the new exam. You share this with your adviser and the dean afterwards. The dean tells you that exam questions you’ve seen before tend to come up again. They’re still confident you’ll pass soon.
6. It’s November now, and you sit for the exam a third time, after studying the state modules your adviser told you to study and after attending the seminar. Since you were so close to passing last time, you also go over your trusty research notes from before. However, you miss the mark by 8 points this time. This exam, by the way, was VERY different from the other two you already took.
7. You meet with your adviser and show him your third test report. This time, he asks you to show him the many research articles you studied from earlier in the year when you missed the mark by 3 points. He also tells you that he is in the process of overhauling two of his own courses. You share your research reluctantly because this is something he should have already known to guide YOU, but you share your long list of articles with him (and the dean) anyway. You ask him if there is a report the university may have received showing the program’s areas of weakness. He answers that most candidates statewide are not passing the written section of the exam (which you already passed nearly a year ago), and that is what the university will be focusing on. He adds that perhaps you’re not a very good test taker, that you’re thinking too much through the test, and that you’re suffering from test anxiety. He even takes you to the testing center of the university to see if they have any pointers for you on taking standardized tests. No help there. When you tell him you would like to challenge the exam because Pearson allows you to do so since you missed within 10 points of passing, your adviser tells you not to even bother to pay the $75 dollars to challenge it because, as you’ve also heard from others candidates who did so, Pearson just shows you the questions you missed and find their own justifications as to why your answers were wrong, not giving you the opportunity to challenge anything. Everyone you talked to who paid to challenge the exam tells you it was a waste of time and money. Besides, you have to wait much longer than 4 weeks to retest if you go that route. Your adviser insists you to take the exam as soon as you can and ‘get this done’ because ‘you’re so close to passing’.
8. You go back to the drawing board, and again you study your own trusty notes plus new resources you research on your own. You sit for the exam again in January, this time missing the mark by 3 points again! You’re beginning to trust your own research versus what your adviser tells you to study. However, your scores are still low in the very same sections as nearly a year ago.
9. You meet with your adviser a fourth time to discuss your test results. Again, you ask him to share with you the report that shows their program’s areas of weakness because you’re doubtful about the university’s instructional approach. He tells you this time that there is only one course the university is really concerned about. They hired a new professor for that course, and he wants you to retake that course (as well as one of his own courses which he tells you again he’s recently overhauled) to prepare you for the subtest. But he still wants you to take the exam as soon as you can.
10. Thirteen months have passed since you initially sat for the state exam and missed one of the 4 test areas. In the meantime, you’ve had to remain enrolled at the university 10 extra months because it is university (and state policy according to the dean) that you are enrolled at the university when you pass the exam. You are taking a loan, which is now at $70,000 due to the extra time you’ve had to remain enrolled. You are taking the courses they wanted you to retake and you find these courses are VERY different from the original courses you took. You’re waiting to see how you faired with the fifth exam.
Believe me when I say, Dawn, that part of my own research was to get into those same websites you mentioned, looking for any type of information that could help me pass this standardized test and looking to understand the test itself. I think I am a very fair person and I am not too quick to judge anyone (I wouldn’t want anyone to do that to me). But after all this that I have shared here, I am lacking a diploma for a master’s program I started in 2013, I am $70,000 in debt to Sally Mae, I have paid Pearson $1,125 dollars (paying the entire exam fee each time I take the test, not a subtest fee) to take one of their subtests (they lowered the cost for the one subtest most candidates are still failing), I have taken my own initiatives to find resources on my own that could help me pass the exam, and I remain resilient and hopeful, however frustrated. How much longer can I go not knowing when will I pass this test? I truly believe in my heart that universities were unaware of how different the new exam would be. The fact that my department saw the need to overhaul (as far as I know) 3 of their courses says a lot about the issue. I hope you can share your thoughts after reading this.
The first time I took the FELE I only passed the 1st section. I did pay the $75 to challenge the test, and get a look at the questions I got wrong…since there is not relevant or updated FELE guides with the exception of the one provided for by the FLODOE, with 15 questions per section…REALLY??? I too have purchased the books recommended int he reference section of the fele study guide 7th edition. I found it slightly helpful. I mentioned to husband who also took the test the first time and did not pass that it was a conspiracy…Even after I challenged my essay which was perfect with the exception of 2 misspelled words…per the rubric I only scored a 6 and the state would change my score. I think this is something to look into. Pray you pass it the next time around.
Hello, Natalya: I would love to talk to you further about this. I created a Facebook page called “Can’t Pass the FELE 3.0” so that we can support each other. I am looking for more graduate candidates going through the same experiences. Please, visit me there, write a message and/or leave a comment.
Remember when Florida students first took the FCAT 2.0? Remember how many schools ended up with grades of Fs all over the state? I believe that the very same phenomena is happening with the FELE 3.0. All this is connected to the changes from the old standards to the CCSS, affecting everything in its path. 86% of candidates are failing the exam. Obviously, just as schools were not ready for the FCAT 2.0 back then, educational leadership programs across the state were not ready for the FELE 3.0. It has been only after so many candidates are failing the test since January 2015 that universities are waking up and revamping their curriculum to better prepare us. In the meantime, we are in a limbo state and paying Pearson time and time again for retakes because we want our diplomas and move on. It is a state racket and no one is concerned about the teachers once again. Hope to hear from you.
Precisely the reason that standardized tests are completely absurd to begin with (at any grade level). We already have the ability to assess student achievement. At the content instruction level.
Who gets to be in charge of “establishing a baseline” (especially with an all-new exam)? And how can one determine from an exam the potential success of a future administrator AS an administrator? They can’t. I can quite honestly say that the driving factors behind what made my bad administrators “bad”, have had nothing to do with the relative degree of knowledge they possess. It has to do with the actual choices they make once seated and given immense power.
Qualitative measures are the only ones that we can rely on.
Hi Natalya,
I am struggling with the written performance essay. I have taken it twice now, both times scoring a 6. Is there no point in doing the score verification, in your opinion? Above you said “and the state would change my score”. Did you mean wouldn’t? I would rather just try the test again and not have to wait an extra 30 days if the verification process is useless.
Thanks for any feedback and good luck on any future attempts.
Jennifer D.
I went to my first verification two Mondays ago. I have taken subtest 1 now 5 times, every titme failing within a couple of points (extremely frustrating!!). I decided to pay the $75 and wait longer this time even though my adviser has told me for months that the verification process is not worth it. Two colleagues also told me that they thought it was a waste of money and time. I had to see for myself (although I’ve already paid Pearson $1200 total these 13 months). I sat down, looked at the items I missed, challenged four of them, and at least saw the type of question I’ve been getting incorrect. I think that helped. I received their letter yesterday saying that they think their own answers for the items I challenged were the correct answers (so I got them wrong; that’s it). What hurts is having to pay the $75 dollars, travel 190 miles (1.5 hours) from home to one of the 4 centers they have just for verification (mind you, I live 4 miles away from a Pearson center… just 4 miles), and the fact that I cannot get my diploma until I pass that exam, which I keep failing by just a few points every time. Did you know that 86% of candidates in Florida are failing this test the first time they take it? The same 86% have had to retake it time and time and time again. Terrible!
Hello, Patrick: I want to thank you for your encouragement. Can you believe Florida? Here’s a tidbit I recently found out; the Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship Program implemented by the state in 2015. Simply absurd! It’s a system based on standardized testing all around here, now wanting to find those teachers who did very well in their SATs! Of course, catering the young and new… and clueless.
http://www.fldoe.org/about-us/best-brightest.stml and http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2015/07/florida-law-gives-teachers-bonuses-based-on-their-high-school-test-scores.html
Thanks for the links. Keep going!
I taught at a Title-1 high school with an academic achievement level that we’d all consider to be (anecdotally) “very low”. Most kids not emerging at a level that one would normally consider to be “college ready”.
So what did our administrators do? Offer more AP courses. And stick scads of kids who were definitely not “AP qualified” into them (using spoon-fed packets and powerpoints provided by who else? Pearson!. More than half of our seniors were enrolled in the AP variant of senior English. Why? “Studies show that kids who are enrolled in AP courses… go onto college more often than those who don’t (and they have higher graduation rates).” Well duh, of course they do. But not BECAUSE of the AP courses. It gets better: The school’s “letter grade” from the state was based partially on the percentage of kids “enrolled” in AP courses. I think of close to 1000 enrolled AP “seats” in our school (an absolutely “absurdly” high number), only 75 of these seats went on to get a passing score on an AP exam. All of this because of one article that the superintendent read. My personal take was that only about 75 kids at our school were even of the “AP caliber.”
Another factor used determine the letter grade for the school? The number of kids who are ACT or SAT test takers. What did they do? They paid for (and essentially forced) each junior to take the ACT exam. Scores did not affect the school’s letter grade (so who cares, right?). Their average scores? 16 (21 is the nationwide composite average). Of course, that dumbs-down the entire nationwide exam (which is scored on a curve). We helped drag-down the nationwide curve so that other kids believed they were better than they actually were. Of course, this hurts the colleges that accept the borderline kids, as they’re not really ready yet.
BTW, this genius is brought to you by the great state of Arizona.
After my first year of teaching (and witnessing the insanity of “education reform”)here, I decided that it was my duty to become a saboteur of the system. I dodged and defied stupidity at every turn, and did my best to open the eyes of my students whenever possible. I graded a lot less work, and concentrated on boosting the critical thinking skills of my students. I made the experiences qualitative, and did my best to stay away from quantitative. I gave it four years and returned to my previous professional career.
So are there any tips or information to help those who are about to take the exam?? I am freaking out, and I know the study guides out there are not relevant to the test questions. HELP!!
What has happened for people on the written section? I took it 5/14 and am unsure of the written portion.
Ryan, it sounds like you only took the written section on 5/14. Otherwise, you would’ve known right away if you passed any of the multiple choice questions since they give you a “pass or not pass” mark on the spot. I wish you luck in passing the written; but if you happen to fail it, will you please let me know? You have between 2 weeks to 29 more days before finding out.
Just curious… Have you contacted an attorney to explore avenues of relief? You’ve obviously invested a lot of money in your education on this, and it doesn’t look like you have any kind of access to real transparency on the fairness of the process.
Yes, Patrick. I contacted 2 education attorneys. I explained the situation to both. One told me he would call me back, but never did. The other explained that the situation sounded like an educational malpractice case. He further explained that no one in the legal system like these types of cases because they are very difficult to prove or they are weak and easy to lose. Judges, in particular, don’t like them and look down, dismissing them pretty quickly. He also said that even if he took my case, I still would have to pay him even if the university refused to return his calls or give feedback. I told him I was more interested in seeking a lawyer who could help me investigate why so many candidates are failing these tests multiple times by just a few points, and explained my whole entire experience down to the amount of money I have spent. He was not interested.
I contacted the state’s teachers union twice and they had no clue how to help. I created the Can’t Pass the FELE 3.0 Facebook page hoping to attract the attention of those living the very same experience. Several have visited the site and I connected with a handful. I told candidates to contact our state union hoping that, if they hear from more than one person complaining about this issue, may be that will move them to action. Nothing. I even wrote two newspapers about it. Nothing. I contacted my local union, and very few candidates have responded.
May be I am doing something wrong. No one seems to be interested or is angry enough to want to expose Pearson here. It’s like they’re not even thinking about it. It’s like we are all on our own little island. Other than identifying candidates who want to join me, I have no idea what else to do. Do you? Thanks for asking.
I think you may have approached the latter attorney with a somewhat timid approach. As if you wanted him to tell you IF you were right. He might only want clients that actually believe in their situations. I think you already know you’re right. The real issue is not about investigating “if” the state and university have done wrong, but in seeking relief for the damages you have suffered (and continue to suffer) as a result of the gap that exists between what you’ve been given as a student, and the exam the state has offered. Somewhere between the state and the university, liability must exist. Go bang on some more attorney doors.
If you file suit, trust me, their attorneys will return your attorney’s calls.
I am so angry about the whole Pearson racket. It is so clear to me, and I can’t understand how other candidates here in Florida cannot see what is happening. You have a corporation that is robbing everyone blind, right in front of our faces. You finish your entire graduate program, pass every single one of your classes with high grades, the universities realize their candidates are failing the state examination, they meet with the state who shares the data (76% failing the first time and having to retest multiple times), candidates are retaking various subtests more than three times and paying from $175 to $225 a pop for each retest, they are feeling depressed, anxious, thinking it is all their own fault, going nuts about not being able to get their graduate diplomas until they pass the test (or worse, giving up), and not one person seems to be as angry as I am to the point of wanting to investigate this to the root. I wish we had stronger union down here in the south… I just wish.
You mean, sort of how teachers allow their employers to take advantage of them now in this post-union climate?
Thanks, Patrick. I am not giving up. Even if I pass this idiotic state certification exam, I will continue to pursue this. I KNOW I am right. I will continue knocking on doors.
Ditto Ditto Ditto. Pearson and the FLDOE……very lucrative business!! Could anyone help with Subtest 2?
Hola, Norma:
Subtest 2 is about organizational leadership. I passed it the first time February 2015. You need to study the different leadership styles. Go into The Wallace Foundation research on educational leadership to read about goals and vision and how new leaders should deal with that. Researching those articles helped me tremendously since there were no other resources to study from (and there are still none). Also, hold your university, department dean, and professors accountable. They are in the midst of revamping their own courses to align to the FELE 3.0. The problem is that candidates have been left to fend for themselves without any provisions or fair approaches. Instead of lowering fees, for instance, the state almost more than doubled the exam fees. There are many things the state and universities could have done and can still do to help candidates with this examination in time of transition and field testing (because they are still field testing this certification exam, just like they took three years to field test the FCAT 2.0 without accountability to schools after the horror of 2012 and most schools in Florida earning grades of D and F).
I too am mind blown at the fact that I have taken the written portion of the FELE 3 times with no success. Each time I have scored a 6 out of the required 7. All throughout my program, I have scored A’s for my classes and have been complimented several times about my writing. This test doesn’t agree with my professors. I am frustrated that each time I have to pay $150 to retest for an hr exam. FL doesn’t pay its teachers $150 an hour and we are not excused from a day of work for taking the exam either. So not only do I have to pay a full days pay for the exam, I also have to give up a personal day in order for my district to pay for a sub. At this point, I’m about to complete score verification, but can’t help but wonder is it worth the $75 for them to stand behind their decision. Something is really going with this assessment. I am in no way under educated to the point where I can’t pass a hypothetical situation writing assessment.
Rather than one person burdening the expense, why don’t you find the others who have had a similar experience and collectively hire an attorney? It doesn’t seem that you have a clearly defined standard (or a way to clearly get there).
Yes, Patrick, sounds easy to get everyone together. Exactly what I thought before. People are just bent on passing this exam and moving on with their lives. No one seems interested in bringing to the attention of the state how this is impacting candidates. Lawyers are not interested. Talked to a third one the other day and he told me exactly what the other two did before him; not a winnable case. He says I need a huge firm that will take it as a contingency case and a class action case. People won’t come forward like I thought in Florida. They’re too scared.
I guess the next thing is to tell anyone who reads this to write a letter to the Florida Department of Education and complain to the one person who may be able to do anything about it: Let him know how they feel.
Phil Canto, Bureau Chief of Postsecondary Assessment
325 West Gaines Street, Suite 414
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0400
Phone: 850-245-0513
Fax: 850-245-0793
Here’s the website: http://www.fldoe.org/accountability/assessments/postsecondary-assessment
I too am having an awful time passing the FTCE English 6-12 essay portion of the exam. I missed it both times. My score both times was 6. An 8 or higher is needed as a passing grade. After my third try at taking the FTCE English 6-12 multiple choice test, I passed. However, the essay portion has proven difficult.
I was a writer before beginning my teaching career for eight years. Go figure. I just took the FTCE English 6-12 essay test for the last and final time. My temporary teaching certification expires 6/30/16. If I do not pass this test, I cannot teach as a certified professional.
My administration has been super supportive and is holding my position until I hear my score report. They have also offered me a substitute position, full time, which I plan to decline, if I do not pass.
Now, I get that the State of Florida wants more rigorous tests to help elevate the caliber of teachers here however, I am an award winning teacher and have scored highly effective twice, in the two years I have worked in the public schools (one year in a charter school).
After not passing the essay portion for the second time, I contacted my local union. They were helpful and offered me a grant to take several literature courses for free through one of our major universities. FAU (where I obtained my BA in English) had me focused on British literature, therefore I felt weak in American literature. I took three online courses, while teaching full time. These courses did nothing to help me with the essay.
As I have mentioned, I just took the English 6-12 essay on June 2nd. It is June 10th. Typical, I have had my score within 2-3 weeks. I am hoping that I pass this since it is the very last thing needed for my professional 5 year certification. I still have three ESOL courses to complete within the 5 year prof. certification timeline but, I am not planning on pursuing those this summer until I know that I am going to teach a subject I love, at a school that I love.
Just thought I’d share my experience and frustration.
Back in the later half of the 20th century California required all teachers, if they did not have degrees that matched the subjects they were teaching, to write an essay to prove they could reason and write.
I was teaching English and had a BA in journalism. My MFA in writing with an empathizes in 20th century American authors did not count. Only the BA counted.
The prompt asked me to write about another person who was a roll model for me when I was growing up. I had no roll models in my life that I could think of, so I created one by using my father and turning him into a person that he clearly never was, but the judge that would read my essay wouldn’t know that. When the score came back, I barely passed by one point.
Yet, as an English teacher, I taught an award winning poetry and short story unit and as a journalist teacher, worked with an award winning high school newspaper staff. I taught my English students how to write essays and stay on topic and according to the district, they dramatically improved as writers while in my classroom.
It would have been nice if my father had been the roll model I created. In real life, he was an alcoholic, a gambler and he cheated on my mother a number of times during the early years of their marriage that lasted 54 years. My older sister still can’t understand why our mother stuck with him all those years. My real dad never served in the military and he never lost any limbs.
The fictitious roll model father I created for that prompt was a combat vet that has lost his legs and never let anything stand in his way to support and raise his children. I loaded the essay with detailed examples of the challenges my fictitious father roll model overcame, and I never strayed off topic. But I almost failed that essay.
Lloyd. Your story sounds soulful and beautiful. I am a veteran, so I can relate (and a medical tech at that, so I’ve seen some things). Everybody is catering to this giant, this Pearson person (because, of course, corporations are people). I am resolved to write a letter to that person in the Dept. of Ed in my state and give them a piece of my mind, as delicately as I can. I hope they listen and will consider making serious provisions for candidates. This is completely unacceptable, disheartening, idiotic, and could have been prevented if anyone cared about the student. This is what pisses me off about this; the hypocrisy of telling us to treat our students one way while they feel they have the right to treat graduate candidates this way. There is also a lot of hypocrisy in the exam itself. I keep getting told that I need to think how the state wants me to think to pass this exam. The problem is that what they say I should do is not what I see happening. Words are words and actions are actions. Thanks, Lloyd.
I am very frustrated with the Professional Educational Exam for Florida. I have taken it 3x’s and have failed. I have studied and maybe over studied to prepare myself. The first go round I missed by 2 points, the second time 8 points and this time, I don’t know my score yet. I have multiple study guides, have conversed with Learning Liaisons. I have listened to the videos and following the directions. I can’t understand where I’m going wrong. I consider myself a good teacher administration and so does my administration but this test is standing in my way. Today I had to notify my administration that I did not pass, yet again, and now have to give up my position due to not passing. It’s terrifying to know my future as a teacher is uncertain. I have a family to support, bills to pay and children in college. How can this be fair? I don;t understand this whole thing. If I can teach and do my job well then what is wrong with me that I can’t pass this test? Anyone have suggestions? It would be greatly appreciated.
Hello, Kristie:
I understand your frustration. Please, tell me… did you pass every single course at your university with high scores? Is your graduate portfolio complete? Is the university saying you only have 33 of your 36 credits completed because you have not passed the FELE 3.0 yet, or do you have all your 36 credits? Is your university saying that their courses are currently aligned to the FELE 3.0, or are they aligning these courses as we speak (and most likely have been doing it only since October 2015)? See? One thing is to say that their courses are aligned to the FELE and another to say that their courses are aligned to the FELE 3.0 (the version updated in 2014 and the one for which the state increased the passing rates in January 2015). Have your department dean or professors created any FELE 3.0 workshop at your university? (If they haven’t, they are choosing to turn a blind eye to the situation).
You need to send your complaint to Mr. Phil Canto, Bureau Chief of Postsecondary Assessment at the Florida Department of Education. The letter you wrote here is perfect!!! Send him an email at Phil.Canto@fldoe.org.
AND, just as important, tell every single candidate you know and all your cohort colleagues who are in the same predicament as you to email him at that address, copy the commissioner of education as well, and anybody else at the education department. Perhaps they will understand our predicament. Believe me when I say that this might help our situation. I have been at this since June last year when I took it for a second time. Also, you may want to consider contacting the Florida Association of Professors of Educational Leadership (FLAPEL, or FAPEL as they were called, google it) and send copies of your letter to its officers as well. Every single one of these people are VERY aware of what is going on. The only one laughing its way to the bank through all this is Pearson VUE, Inc.
Also, visit Can’t Pass The FELE 3.0 Facebook page if you want to talk more about this. My insane battle with this system is over not passing ONE subtest which I have failed by 3 points twice!! My dean told me they are thinking of reducing the passing scores for subtest 3, but I I strongly believe they must do so for the other subtests. We are teachers, and we don’t have the luxury of paying $225 per subtest for a state certification exam that is still in the process of being FIELD TESTED RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!! Meet me at that Facebook page.
I too have had a similar experience with Oearson. I have taken English 5-9 twice, passing the essay, but not the multiple choice. I have a Doctorate in Special Ed., graduated with a 3.98, even passed the ESE K-12 on the first attempt. I bought TWO popular study guides and walked around with flash cards for months. Nothing was what on the exam. There were terms in the exam that I did not even recognize. I can’t even see what I got right or wrong. And, if I want to check or challenge the exam I have to pay Pearaon another $75 just to see which answers I got wrong???????
Pearson is a tyrannical organization that holds people hostage and sucks as much money from them as they can. I wonder if anyone cares or will ever do anything about it.
Erin,
Did you get a letter stating which portion (s) of the exam you were weak in? I believe it is the letter in the mail that breaks down which areas you did not pass.
Whatever you do, DO NOT pay to challenge the test! I paid $75 to challenge my essay. I did not receive any feedback as to why I was scored 6 and not 8 to pass. I wrote an essay on why my original essay deserved at least 2 additional points and, basically waited 3 weeks for a letter that said I was SOL. No explanation, nothing. I just retook my essay. I will lose my job if I don’t pass this time.
My suggestion with the multiple choice questions: (I passed the third time I took it)
Chose the least likely and most inappropriate answer. That is the way to pass that. Sad, right?! Pathetic even.
I feel your pain!
Erin and Donna W., PLEASE, send your emails to Mr. Canto at the FDOE. He’s the person who needs to hear these same comments about the exam. He deals with the Florida Educational Leadership Examination (FELE 3.0), the exam aspiring principals and assistant principals must take. We are also being held hostage until we pass that state exam even though we finished (with high marks) our entire 2-year graduate program. Please, write Mr. Canto at Phil.Canto@fldoe.org and let him know how you feel about not being able to pass these new exams. Copy as many people at the FDOE as you can. Let EVERYONE who has failed these exams to do the same. Send emails and call these people. They need to know of our frustrations. Without this communication from candidates, they won’t do anything meaningful.
I wrote an email to this man asking him a very specific question about their process. He did not even reply.
Did you write recently a while back…?
Within the last 2-3 weeks. No reply. I asked him if he’d seen this thread (and I provided a link), and asked if he thought there was a problem that needed to be addressed.
Clearly, several of you experiencing this problem have found your way to this blog post from several months ago. You have three basic options:
1) Keep pouring your money into this “black hole” of an exam and seeing if you can finally stumble upon the right combination of words or responses that allow you to pass. Unfortunately, they won’t tell you what your current “weakness” is in the current exam, so you have no realistic target to hit. You’ve been offered literally no transparency on how the exam is scored (or the credentials of who scores it), and from what I see, you have very little hope of utilizing the knowledge you’ve attained in grad school to make the situation turn our differently.
2) You can give up and start paying those loans back.
3) You can turn to the legal system and seek some relief.
The original poster says she has visited 2-3 attorneys who have turned her away. But I’m willing to bet that if several of you band together (and pool your resources), you just might be able to convince someone good to help you out (and get some relief). There are some very serious problems with Pearson and the Florida DOE in regards to transparency on how this exam is scored (and who is being allowed to score it). If you do some hunting on the web, you can find examples of how they pay people $10/hour to score exams in their spare time. People with no subject knowledge, just following a guidebook on keywords to look for, etc. It’s that bad when Pearson gets involved. Don’t give up. Don’t be #2!
Hello,
can anybody recommend where to find useful resources or study guides for the subtest 1 and 2?
Already passed subetst 3 and the essay exam.
thanks
Franklin
Go to Facebook page Can’t Pass the FELE 3.0. I can share some of the material I studied.
I too am a Florid teacher! Correction, I have passed everything except one section of a subtest. My school wants to keep me, I love my school, the kids and the parents! I work with the lowest scoring kids. I have 2 BA degrees, Master in Esucation, I don’t get paid extra for, and a license in addiction counseling Bc I formerly worked in our prison system but yet, I have taken my exam 7 times which has now cost me my job! I do have a professional cert in SS but I teach reading and English. You see, I’ve done everything asked of me- love teaching the kids most think have behavioral issues! Many just need to know someone will go above and beyond for them. The worst part- I am within points each time I take the test. This time other teachers helped me- yes- during their summer breaks. I did find several questions that actually could verifiably be invalid. I am going to do the score verification but the whole reason I didn’t do it before was Bc I couldn’t afford to wait another 30 days to take the test if I didn’t win. My heart is in teaching! My whole school has rooted for me- I am a highly effective evaluated teacher who is now currently unemployed and homeless. HOW IS THIS OKAY? I’ve written to state legislature and I even walked into the governors office and politely requested he provide DOE proper study and test prep material. The new test only has that 30 question examples on the FTCE website and it’s helpful but obviously not all that helpful. I just don’t know what to do! I mean I work at a Title 1 school Bc I want to make a difference- I want these kids to know they have someone on their side. I feel overtested. I mean last minute, even with my Masters degree they don’t pay me for, they made me pay $1500 to do the 500 hour online alt cert program in just a 4 month time period. Sure I could go back to my other field, but what kind of role model would I be? It’s ridiculous- 7 times, “Come On” I’ve spent 4500.00 testing! Now I have no insurance Nd no job! How does this help public education when you take someone like me, doing everything asked of me and more Bc I work 12-15 hour days, and toss aside but yet still talk about teacher shortage. Unions haven’t helped, admin hands are tied! I mean come on- Highly Effective means something. A masters degree means something. The test does not measure what I know. I am so beyond frustrated and heartbroken Bc my kids need me! Theyve been with me 2 years and many are now going to graduate.
They did the work but I feel like my skills personally and professionally have helped them see the life skills they need as well! Why are we silencing teachers! I want to write my teacher resignation from the State of Florida. What’s being done, laws passed tha affect us now are ridiculous, teachers are retiring early, why is it all or nothing? I just want our voices heard!!!!
I completely understand! I also am in the same boat. I have the professional education exam that I still need to pass. I have taken it 4 times and not passes. My temporary certification is up and my teaching job? Well thank his I work at a charter school that thinks the world of me. I am going to be a long term sub, however I need to pass that test…no insurance and cut in pay. The money spent on taking the test, buying the study guides and not to meantionthe stress, frustration and uncertainty of the future. I love teaching. I love my school. This test foesnt define who I am or what I can do. I’m looking to retake the exam again in August. I’m do tired of throwing money away that could be used towards bills, it’s not right in my opinion. I have contacted the Department of Education and was told to look over the study guide and to see which areas I am weak in then study those…be there done that and still I’m lost. Why can’t our college degree and prior knowledge testing plus subject area test be enough? The best is I was told that if I do not pass by February I will need to retake my subject area exam again and now they require much. What is this???
Hello, Diane:
I thank you again for your blog. It has opened the door to an issue that needs resolution for so many teachers who all they have wanted to do is get ahead in their professional lives, but have found a huge monster in their way to reach their goals. This monster is three headed so far, with one head being the State of Florida’s Bureau of Postsecondary Assessment (and it’s chief, Mr. Phil Canto), the other head being Pearson (an entity Mr. Canto says has nothing to do with the issue at hand), and the third head being the University system in Florida (another entity that has been kind of “disavowed” of all this, for the lack of a better word.
What can be done about this? You can see the number of frustrated teachers who answered to my original entry from March 6, 2016. Everyone is going EXACTLY THROUGH THE SAME EXPERIENCE, with minor details changed. The fact that every one of these teachers are being robbed blind; the fact that Mr. Canto insists there is nothing that can be done; the fact that Pearson keeps raking in the money from all the individuals failing these tests MULTIPLE times; the fact that most of us are failing these subtests by just a few points… all this indicates that there is a major issue going on. However, no law firms want to touch this, not even with a 10 foot pole! What is going on? What can be done? What do you suggest?
Sincerely
Why I Hate Pearson
________________________________
Maria, keep banging the drum. Surely (somewhere, somehow) there must be an attorney that’s willing to take-on this issue. Have you folks considered banging (loudly) on Randi Weingarten’s door? This issue concerns a bit more than just a few “dues payers”.
Imagine if the same kind of situation were happening to 8th grade students needing to pass the common core tests in order to progress forward to 9th grade… They’d have to expand the middle-school parking lots to make room for all of the middle school students that own vehicles!
Notice how this topic keep collecting more and more people affected by the problem. It’s a snowball, not an anomaly. Keep pushing. Keep attacking. Keep calling people. Put those unions to work. You pay dues for their help, not for generic contributions to the coffers of Washington lobbyists.
One of the legal reps at the Florida Teacher Association told me flat out that there is nothing they could do. I try to talk directly to the President and they will not give her my calls or emails. I might just have to take the time to go to Tallahassee and knock at their door directly in order for them to pay any attention. It would be nice to go accompanied by more people. Thanks for the idea, Patrick.
“One of the legal reps at the Florida Teacher Association told me flat out that there is nothing they could do”
That person’s being a bit disingenuous. The correct response is “noting they WILL do”. You just haven’t been heard yet. Keep banging until you are. Knock LOUDER. Demonstrate that these people are supposed to be WORKING FOR YOU.
Seriously, it’s so hard to believe that what’s (essentially) your UNION won’t offer you a seat, listen to the problem you’ve got, and then go to BAT for you!
20 years ago, teaching unions used to go on strike over how much time they get to eat lunch. Now they collect dues and occasionally “advocate” on legislative issues. Now wonder it’s so hard to get teachers to join. If I lived in Florida, I wouldn’t give them a dime.
Hello, Kristie and Corrie McPhearson:
Could you please go to my Facebook site, Can’t Pass the FELE 3.0? We need to talk at a deeper level and hope you are open to suggestions regarding how to approach this dilemma. I am not, by all means, giving up on this issue which is ailing so many of us. Phil Canto, the chief of the Bureau of Postsecondary Assessments is the person to contact and vent to (you will find his info further up in this blog and in the Facebook site). Please, take the time to call his office and SEND HIM AN EMAIL explaining your experience with the certification exams and your frustration. He is the person who needs to hear it. At this point, we must come together as a group. Please, visit my site and let’s talk further.
I suspect that the reason the Florida Education Association is not exactly “jumping” to your defense is they’re afraid of being portrayed as trying to assist sub-par educators (or for being accused of trying to lessen the professional standards). I think they’re well aware of the issue, but are terrified about getting publicly involved. Think of the politics they’re thinking about.
My advice: Offer them a way to get involved “quietly”. Ask for some quiet intervention on your collective behalf.
This can’t be solely blamed on legislation (as Canto has deflected to), because legislation didn’t create the obviously flawed exam questions that are causing this situation. All you need is a hard look at either exam questions or exam scoring methods.
Thank for your input, Patrick. It always helps.
I am dealing with the same issue and am at the point of giving my dreams of becoming a teacher up. I went to UNF and not only are they not releasing my degree of completion but they are also withholding my grade for internship that I earned an A in. Now all I have to show for myself is my associates degree. I am fed up and drained (both mentally and financially). I passed all sections of GK, professional education exam, and Social Science and Science for K-6 after the 3rd attempt. I have failed the Language Arts and Math portion a total of 5 times. I have purchased multiple study guide books, bought online workshops, and have used various study guides online as well. I heard from someone that you can take the teaching exam in Georgia and Florida has to accept it. I am not sure if this is true but I heard it is much easier than the FTCE. I’m going to check into it. Like many of you I have been between 5-3 points from a 200 every time. I went back to school in my late 20’s to provide a better life for me and my daughter. I am a single widowed mom and have worked so hard for my degree only to think that all my work has gone wasted. I am so stressed out about it. Pearson and The Department of Ed for Florida should be ashamed. We need great teachers.. This is not about accountability. This is solely about business and it is so sad
Hello, Beth: Yes, a large percentage of aspiring teachers and principals in Florida are all going through the same experience. No one wants to hear us. I suggest you write an email to Marty Schaap at the Florida Education Association and explain what has happened to you. Then, follow up with an email to Phil Canto, bureau chief of the office of Postsecondary Assessement and the person in charge of overseeing everything about the teacher certification process in Florida. Go to my Facebook page, Can’t Pass the FELE 3.0 and let’s talk more. Leave me a message.
I have the same struggle with the exam. I only took two in a Florida masters program for leadership. I found out about Arkansas state university educational leadership program cheaper $8,410 and you don’t have to pass a dam exam to get your masters in educational leadership complete the 12 courses
Hello, Melvin: Is there any chance you could go to my Facebook page “Can’t Pass the FELE 3.0” and write a post with this information? I’m sure some people will be able to benefit from it. If you could give details about your information, I’ll greatly appreciate it. Thanks. Also, you can post about your experience there.
I did write yet another email to The Florida Dept of Ed and (about a week later) received a reply from Süleyman Olgar, the “Psychometrics, Scoring & Reporting Supervisor” on behalf of Phil Canto. It’s filled with the history of how the exam (and passing standards) came about. It’s a fairly long email (and I will post it below). But I can summarize the main thoughts right here and now:
1) We created new competencies back in 2012. We created a new exam to reflect them. We informed the relevant players that these exact changes were coming (universities, school districts, etc).
2) Passing scores were set by committees (note that the word is plural) “comprised of subject matter experts” (if you’ve ever seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, think of the line “Top. Men.”). These committees said “Yes, this exam aligns to the competencies” and “Yes, these passing scores reflect the appropriate amount of rigor required to be an administrator”. (IE, “Don’t blame US. It’s the committees that set the passing standards”).
3) There’s no state budget money for administering exams. That’s why it’s expensive. Enter: Pearson. So, because we never budget any money to administer exams, we’ll use an outside company (enter: lobbyists to pave these deals) to make it even MORE expensive.
4) We created handy-dandy “exam-taking guides”. A handy-dandy bibliography also accompanies the exam guides, so you’ll know which books you should have been using to study.
5) Requirements are written into State Board of Education Rules. We can’t talk about them, really. Not our job.
6) In short, because we created a committee to set the standards, our job is DONE. We have no mechanism in place within the DOE to examine passing rates, because we never thought of it. But hey, GOOD LUCK TO YOU. You’ll need it!
Here is the full text of the email:
Dear Mr. (Me),
Thank you for your correspondence concerning the Florida Educational Leadership Examination (FELE). Bureau Chief Phil Canto received your message and has asked me to respond on his behalf. Please allow me to share some information that you may find helpful.
In November 2012, the State Board of Education approved new competencies and skills for the Florida Educational Leadership Examination (FELE), and in 2014 the FELE was redeveloped to align to these new competencies and skills. In early 2013, prior to the implementation of the redeveloped FELE (FELE 3.0), information pertaining to forthcoming changes was provided via memo (http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-6667/040513fele.pdf) to Florida school districts, deans and directors of college and university education programs, and other parties and was also available on the SBE website. New passing scores were established for the redeveloped FELE by a committee of content experts representing various regions of the state, and the State Board of Education (SBE) approved these new passing scores in its November 2014 meeting. The new passing scores for all subtests of FELE 3.0 became effective on January 1, 2015, per State Board Rule 6A-4.00821. The agenda from the November 18, 2014, State Board of Education meeting is available at http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/9931/urlt/0109033-400821.pdf and includes the recommended passing scores and the projected passing rates. All examinees taking the FELE after January 1, 2015, are subject to the new (current) passing scores.
The current passing scores were recommended by committees comprised of subject matter experts from Florida’s colleges, universities, and school districts representing all regions of the state. These content experts, representing the educational leadership profession in Florida, ensured that all test materials—including competencies and skills, test questions, and passing score recommendations—were fully aligned to Florida standards and placed at an appropriate level for the Beginning Effective School Administrator Candidate (BESAC). These representatives of the profession also established the level of rigor and complexity for the FELE to ensure that school administrator candidates possess the appropriate level of proficiency and knowledge to effectively lead Florida’s schools.
General revenue funds are not currently appropriated by the legislature for developing and administering postsecondary examinations. This has necessitated an increase in fees to support the continued development, administration, scoring, reporting, and quality control of the FTCE and FELE. FELE registration fees are written in State Board Rule 6A-4.00821 and are used to support those activities and to provide the following additional testing services:
· 39 computer-based testing centers statewide for customer convenience
· access to over 250 additional testing sites outside of the state of Florida;
· access to over 80 additional testing sites at U.S. military sites in the U.S. and abroad;
· 4 locations statewide where examinees can review the test questions they missed if they failed an examination;
· availability of all 44 FTCE/FELE examinations at computer-based testing centers, including essay exams, French, German, Spanish, and Speech;
· personal score retrieval via the Internet;
· diagnostic reporting services for colleges of education and educator preparation institutes; and
· customer service representatives available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Please know that the Department of Education produces test information guides that provide a general overview of each examination and can be of assistance in your efforts to create a plan of study for your next test session. The test information guide specific to the FELE is located at http://www.fl.nesinc.com/PDFs/FELE_TIG_7th_Edition_DOE011916.pdf. These guides are the only materials the Department endorses and are updated to reflect current test content and standards. They are intended to provide information to examinees taking an examination by presenting an overview of the content and format of the examination. Included in the test information guide, you will find the test blueprint, competencies and skills, and sample test items to help you prepare for the examination.
The test information guide also contains an annotated bibliography that lists text books and other resources that would address specific competencies covered by the FELE. These references may be helpful when studying specific competencies for which you may have demonstrated weak performance, as identified within the “Detailed Performance Analysis” page of the score report you received after testing. Assistance in understanding your score report and the individual scores can also be found here: http://www.fl.nesinc.com/FL_UnderstandingScores.asp.
The online FELE Written Performance resource page also includes several resources intended to further aid examinees in their individual test preparation efforts. These additional resources include an overview of the FELE written performance assessment, rubric and scoring information, sample prompts, and examples of supplemental rating criteria. Note that the test information guides and other Department-produced resources are not intended as all-inclusive sources of content or pedagogical knowledge, nor are they substitutes for college course work.
Requirements for Florida’s School Leadership Programs are written into State Board Rule 6A-5.081. The Bureau of Postsecondary Assessment cannot speak to these requirements in detail; however, if you have questions, you may contact the Florida Department of Education’s Bureau of Educator Recruitment, Development & Retention at (850) 245-0435.
I hope that you find the information above both informative and helpful. If you have any additional questions concerning the FELE, feel free to contact the FTCE/FELE Customer Service Center toll-free at (866) 613-3281, Monday-Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., excluding holidays.
Sincerely,
Süleyman Olgar, Ph.D.
Psychometrics, Scoring & Reporting Supervisor
Office of Assessment, Postsecondary
Florida Department of Education
It’s the exact letter Canto sent me and another candidate. I feel they’re laughing at us (loudly) in our faces (while our universities administrators are on the sidelines shrugging their shoulders), and Pearson has a huge smile on its face. The governor? A businessman like him doesn’t mind this at all. I want to know where else to turn. A congressman who will listen? The US Dept. of Education? I wonder what Diane Ravitch would recommend. Can anyone give some feedback? I don’t want to give this up. By the way, my dean told me in May that they would “not help me anymore. We’ve done enough for you”. She won’t allow me to sit in any of the newer courses anymore. No financial aid (loan). I went to my principal and told him I won’t be back this year. (If I return to teaching, it will be with that diploma in my hand.) I found a new job and I’m waiting for my second check. I don’t think it will be enough to pay for the 6th exam ($225). Yes, I still will owe the $70K for the masters without having anything to show for it (no diploma until I pass this fixed certification exam). I still believe what the state is doing is extremely wrong. The state is at peace with themselves because they have set up a system that protects them legally (and the universities as well) from anything we might want to do to get our money back or fight for all the hard work we put into getting our educational leadership degrees. They talk so much about accountability and are the first ones to run away from it.
My advice: Sue!
EdTPA has never been validated as a sure predictor of teacher quAlity
And here is the reply I just fired-off to Dr. Olgar:
Dear Dr. Olgar,
Thanks for your reply. So basically, everyone who takes this FELE exam is at the mercy of an “already made” committee decision… or at the mercy of whoever scores the subjective components of the exam.
Does the state board (or your group) have any mechanism in place to utilize commonly accepted “best practices” to examine the massive failure rate of the exam? Your email seems to convey the rationale that since there was a committee (and the committee made a decision) that there is no avenue to re-examine or even re-tool the exam. IE, “Why not convene another committee to examine the high failure rate?”
Another question: How are those scoring the “subjective” components of the exam (IE, essays, written responses, etc) certified as being competent authority for doing so? Who certifies them, and what are their credentials? Who do they report to?
Is it humanly possible that Pearson could be employing unfair scoring practices to subjective portions of the exam to help boost exam-taking revenue? Someone is clearly making some money here. A lot of people are re-taking sub-sections of the exam at great expense. Pearson would have motive to pressure its scoring staff to err on the side of failure, would they not?
Is there any avenue that exists to audit Pearson’s handling of the scoring?
Thank you,
Patrick
I would be very interested in hearing if you receive a response, please.
Patrick, THANK YOU for sending this magnificent response letter. I am looking forward to their reply. I hope they do. I would send the copy to Canto and Pam Stewart (FDOE commissioner). Even though it feels they won’t listen, the more letters they get like this, the better. This is why I’m telling everyone to email Canto and copy her. I don’t know of anyone else who will listen in Florida. We must take this to another level.
Thanks for the kind words. And you’ve heard it from Diane. SUE! Get your collective minds together, pool your resources, and knock on doors until someone helps you.
You and your contemporaries taking this exam have been literally thrown to the wolves. Sure, some attorneys have turned you down. Knock on more doors. Don’t talk to them about wanting to “expose” anything. You need to seek damages, as you most certainly HAVE suffered damages. Remember the film “Philadelphia”? Tom Hanks character went to NINE attorneys before hiring the ambulance chaser who ultimately won his case (and it was a true story). Remember, attorneys don’t sue people. Clients do. Attorneys help them sue. Hire one that will forge your “hopeless” case. I suspect that it’s not really helpless. The onion has been peeled back a bit, and it seems that we’ve had the problem exposed a bit more. They pawned-off the entire process to a committee that is no longer involved in monitoring the QA of the exam. Clearly, the exam is flawed, and based on how they create the damn thing… NO WONDER it sucks!
Anyhow, a day later, and Dr. Olgar has not replied. So I’ve taken the email (you’ve seen it already) and forwarded it to Canto (with the note below).
—
Dear Mr. Canto,
Below is the reply I sent to Dr. Olgar. I think I raised some fair questions. Ones that are worthy of an answer.
In my own teaching work, I have a fantastic online exam administration system that I’m able to use. One of its best features is the graphical “side view” of the exam results and distributions. Right away, I can take notice of questions that are “out of the norm” in terms of failure rate. When exceedingly large numbers of people get them wrong, I know it’s time to take a look under the hood. Two things can be true: I either didn’t properly equip them to potentially succeed, or there is a flaw with my question (as written). And by my estimation, more than 90% of the time, the latter is true. I make a quick modification to how the question is worded, and by the next group, I see a more normalized distribution of the results.
I don’t have an advanced degree in statistics. I don’t even teach math. I teach Graphic Design! But I’m humble enough to recognize that I’m capable of messing things up. And I’m willing to take quick notice and go back and fix things.
I made my initial thoughts known in two separate emails sent to you. In Dr. Olgar’s response to me last week, I think he made it perfectly clear that the committee met, did its work, agreed with itself that its work was good, and ended their work. It would appear that you have no mechanism in place to evaluate (in real-time) the quality of this committee’s work. I think the incredibly high failure rate of the FELE exam warrants an in-depth, apolitical look at exactly what went wrong. Your group (at face value) appears to have no interest in examining what’s happened. I think that is not only quite unfortunate, but that it delves into professional irresponsibility.
I will leave you with this parting thought:
“A camel is a racehorse (designed by committee).”
– Patrick
Patrick,
There are two paths to suing Pearson.
One is the way teacher Sheri Lederman fought in court and won against New York State. She has the good fortune to be married to a lawyer. Bruce Lederman was tireless in vindicating his wife in court. The judge said New York’s evaluation system is arbitrary and capricious.
The other way is to gather a group of teachers to sue Pearson and the state for using an arbitrary test to deny teachers the ability to pursue their profession. They would have to find a lawyer willing to work pro bono or on a contingency basis.
I have taken the profession education test 6 times and still havent passed. I bought 2 review books and read them front to back and took the practice tests on the back and have passed them. Now I am at the point of pure insanity because I dont know what I am doing wrong and my career is being jeopardized because of it. I am now considering of joining with other teachers to sue Pearson for their money scheme. These test are definitely not about testing your pedagogy but rather your test taking skills. I am not in college anymore and have proven effectiveness in my profession. Please let me know how I can contribute.
Christopher: Have you been able to pass your certification exam yet? If not, please write to me at cantpassthefele3.0@gmail.com
Hello, Patrick:
I greatly thank you for your great support. You’ve been on top of this since the beginning (March this year), and I greatly appreciate your input and now your letter to Canto. I hope this rattle their chain somehow. I need to rally the troops and see who will be interested in joining me in suing. The more the merrier, but we must join together and act soon.
“but we must join together and act soon.” On that, I completely agree. It’s sad that you have to consider suing, but I think you’re left with few options. Perhaps the biggest shame is that your union is doing literally nothing to aid and assist. No wonder teachers refuse to pay dues anymore.
More than a few have described Phil Canto as an ahole (but not as bad as his predecessor, Mike Jones). He is an ex-cop who some say is on a massive power trip. Don’t expect him to deal directly with examinees.
Top 10 jobs that attract psychopaths: CEOs, lawyers and police make that list.
This piece also lists the 10-least attractive jobs to psychopaths: Teachers make that list.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2013/01/05/the-top-10-jobs-that-attract-psychopaths/?sh=701e37554d80
It’s starting to look more and more like the state DoE was lazy in pawning-off the creation of the FELE exam (and perhaps other exams) to committees, and then irresponsibly “locking things down” with no absolutely looking back to check on the quality or efficacy of what they’d created. There’s also the problem of subjective scoring of essay questions, and that (it appears) is solely in the hands of Pearson (and don’t expect Pearson to get “transparent” anytime soon on exactly how they score these questions.
It’s not a question of “DO I have a case?” It’s a matter of “MAKE a case”. The latter is the kind of attorney you want to work with.
And here’s the basics of your case:
Human beings write exam questions. Large, highly-qualified groups of human beings are sometimes no better at writing quality exams than highly-qualified individuals are.
The state was negligent in their exam creation and quality assurance process, and they continue on with their negligence in refusing to examine the quality of the exam itself (and how it is scored by a third-party contractor). As a result, an unreasonable number of exam failures are being suffered by those persons who have gone to great expense to qualify to sit for it. These persons have been denied a reasonable opportunity to pursue their profession, and have suffered great damages as a result.
Patrick,
I would want to see validity studies that demonstrate that EdTPA actually predicts which test-takers will be effective teachers. It would take years to assemble that evidence. The exam has not been used long enough to establish its predictive validity.
The victims here (at least in this blog post) are teachers who have completed a masters degree in education leadership, and are sitting for the state exam that allows them to be certified as administrators. Many of their masters programs require them to pass the exam as part of the “fine print” of receiving their masters degree. They’re being forced to re-enroll in the university (despite having successfully completed all coursework) as continuous enrollment is (for some reason) required until they succeed. They’re getting screwed in several different ways. It’s incredibly sad. The original poster here has now left her teaching job as a result. But she’s still on the hook for $70 in debt, and no degree to show for it (despite her high GPA).
But it’s also starting to sound like a lot of new, incoming teachers taking their “professional standards” exams are also suffering similar issues.
Apologies: I’m not up on EdTPA
Patrick,
Similar issues about predictive validity.
Imagine if you wanted to get a job coaching swimming, and you were really good at it. But the state required you to pass a test in algebra and geometry to be certified. That would be crazy!
I guess that explains how so many of my administrators were such horrible managers of people. Mine were all obsessed with those large-print Todd Whittaker editorials that masquerade as education books. 🙂
OK, so I read-up on EdTPA. It sure sounds like Pearson dips its toes in a LOT of pools. Four years ago, in Arizona, I had to sit for the Pearson-owned “NES” exam for my secondary professional standards. At the time, they were hard at work trying to lobby every state to adopt it, but it appears as if that effort failed (although AZ still requires it). I’d gotten my provisional CTE certificate years before actually taking a teaching job, so I’d been admittedly lazy about sitting for that exam. When I finally woke up, I only had two weeks left to prepare for my ONE AND FINAL window to not only take the exam, but pass it. Otherwise, a mid-year termination was in store for me.
That exam was CRAZY difficult, and was filled to the brim with obtuse edu-speak and edu-theory. I studied like MAD with the very expensive Pearson-published study guide. Thankfully, I passed (I even did well), but I was very upset at the lack of transparency Pearson offered in how they scored my essay questions. I know that I absolutely nailed them, but I only received rather so-so scores.
I did some digging. I was able to locate several individuals previously employed by Pearson as exam scorers. They worked freelance, and were paid just $12/hour. All they were required to possess was a bachelors degree. It was made clear to me that they were required to “balance-out” the number of people who passed versus those who failed (for the sake of a good looking bell curve). They were given feedback on how their curves looked, so their scoring behavior was always being tainted by Pearson.
It’s a sick business, for sure!
Hello!! I am trying to pass the gkt…can you email me michellegshel823@gmail.com?
English teacher here. I passed the subject area test and essay, the professional test, and everything on the GK but the essay on the first go. I have failed the General Knowledge essay twice, scored seven both times. I’m going to take it for the third and last time next month. If I don’t pass, I’ll challenge it. If that doesn’t work, then I’m done with teaching. It’s not worth the hassle. I have an English degree from a pretty competitive uni so I really don’t buy that I can’t write a decent four to five paragraph essay.
The test as well as the scoring is flawed. You must take the time to write an email to Phil Canto, and cc the Dept of Education commissioner as well as the president of the Florida Education Association and let them know this is not acceptable. You are part of a large percentage of candidates who are failing the teacher state certification exam left and right by a couple of miserable points. Seek out the data to support your letter (the report is called “2015 Annual Administration and Technical Report, January 1 2015 – December 31, 2015”. You may also want to seek out the 2014 report with the same name. These are public versions showing the percentage of candidates who passed certification exams by subject area as well as the educational leadership exam. Write your letter, see out legal representation, and let me know what happens.
Sara H.: Please, let me know if you passed the exam or not last time you tried. If you didn’t pass, please write to me at cantpassthefele3.0@gmail.com
This message is for Christopher, who plans to sue along with other teachers. This is exactly what I’ve been trying to do at my end. Please, Christopher, write to me at my Facebook page, Can’t Pass the FELE 3.0. I really want to join your group. Let’s do this.
I’m SO glad I found this blog. I have been very upset over failing the subtests for the FELE 3.0. I have taken all subtests, passed only 1 and failed subtest 1 again earlier this week. I am sickened to know that Pearson hires unqualified and untrained staff to review the written portion of the exam. I am all on board for going to court against Pearson, I refuse to give them one more cent!
Before you “fire all cannons” at Pearson, make sure you place appropriate blame on the state of Florida. They have been “less than transparent” in regards to providing details on just what constitutes a passing score (in their eyes). Read above.
The state apparently utilized committees to determine the validity of the exam questions, as well as the standard for a passing score in each area of the exam.
It would also appear that they have no interest in paying attention to exam pass-rates, which means they have no interest in even the possibility of looking under the hood to see what’s wrong. The way the bureaucrats see it, they did their job, and what’s done is already DONE.
I asked some entirely fair follow-up questions of Phil Canto and his chief “exam guy” (Dr. Olgar). They both chose to ignore the questions.
Before you can fully assign blame, you need to know what’s going on under the hood, and neither Pearson or the state are prepared to provide that data to you.
Arielle,
Give me a call at 850-223-2395. There is a FELE Review 3.0 in Melbourne, Florida
Janet Williams, Ed.D,
Hello, Arielle:
Please, write to me at cantpassthefele3.0@gmail.com
Is there a group interested in suing? I am interested! Please email me, jrcjohnson415@aol.com
Has anyone had any luck with score verification?
I was told score verification is useless. They don’t give you the correct answer to the problem that you missed and they only give you about two minutes per problem. When you go to challenge nine times out of 10 they dismiss it they will not change your score.
On the note of suing, can we take Ronald Reagan to court for releasing the fraudulent and misleading A Nation at Risk Report that started all this crap?
Is it possible to sue someone who is dead?
Well well looks like I was right, Pearson is out to trick you out of your money. I do not have an education background, but an Art background and have passed all of the teaching exams on the first try except the GK math. That one I have taken 7 times. All of the books, review classes, tutors, online sites and even the DOE site has not prepared me for the calculated switching of the difficulty level of the math problems. It is utterly ridiculous and I would bet that more than half of the current teachers could not pass it and I have a lot of friends that are teachers. The is not a basic math test and it is a huge waste of money of which I want mine back. You would think that with all the hoops required that the profession would pay a decent wage, well it’s a very low wage for a college graduate.
I have experienced the exact same thing. I have taken the math section and failed it 5 times. I asked how could I find out which questions I missed in order to better prepare for the next exam, but no one can tell me what questions I missed.
As I result I keep taking the test over and over again and failing, not knowing which answers were incorrect. Can someone please tell me how I can find out which questions I missed?
Don’t feel bad, I have taken the GK Math 7 times. The first time my score was 194 and it have gone way down to back up and in between. I am convinced that they are doing this to make as much money as possible. Getting so close one would think the second time I would have passed, no they increased the difficulty without telling anyone, the books, review classes etc. I am ready for a class-action suit.
I just failed the GKT essay with a score 7 for the 3rd time – I am going
to have a score verification done – has anyone done this and how successful where you??
Let me know how it went i am curious I am in the same situation! It is insane!
Please let me know if you will be starting a case about this process. This will be my 8th time taking subset 3 and not passing my sore has gone from 169 to 196 back down to 183. I need to understand what I am doing wrong and why I am not passing. As a teacher I dont make enough money to continue to pay $150.00 for this test a 9th time.
Please help!!!
I lost my teaching job and I am currently a sub. Sign and share the petition.
https://www.change.org/p/john-legg-marco-rubio-teachers-need-a-change-in-the-state-of-florida
Email me at cantpassthefele3.0@gmail.com and let’s take it from there. Share the email address with others in your predicament. Hope to talk to you soon.
I invite those of you who have read this blog to join us at “Can’t Pass the FELE 3.0” Facebook site as well and communicate directly with us so we can take action against this extremely detrimental system. I don’t want to let them get away with this.
Peggy, give me a call immediately. 18502232395.
Janet
Excuse my language please
Hello,
I am a student about to graduate with my Associates in December. I am registered this Saturday actually for the GKE Exam for the Special Education Program at Broward College and FAU. This will be my first time but I am pretty pissed off by the expense and why in the heck do I have to take a General Knowledge Exam when I clearly passed high school with a diploma, and I passed all of my college level courses (College Math, English). This is ridiculous to me when I am not even entering in a specific subject program. It makes me want to torture the system and just tell everyone to not become teachers so they can realize they NEED teachers.The Education System is BS and I am so sick of them mistreating the field. They act as if teachers are nothing.
1) The pay needs to be higher for ALL teachers. Starting at 55k-60k.
2) No teachers should have her career based on test scores, if anything, they need to make a ratemyprofessor (teacher edition) for students to write reviews. I would rather that than test scores.
3) Stop giving us unneccesary tests that do not prove a damn thing. Most of you above are way more advanced than I am and they are still requiring you take a test even with your experience. Shameful
I’m going to bring this up to some professors at my college and see what they say.
“why in the heck do I have to take a General Knowledge Exam when I clearly passed high school with a diploma”
You’d be amazed at how many people received a high school diploma, yet can’t form cohesive sentences. The principal who sat in judgement of my teaching career in Arizona had the spelling skills of a third grader! I’m supposed to respect her abilities?
A lot of the replies in this comment string are filled with FUNDAMENTAL spelling and grammatical errors. IE, things that teachers should absolutely know how to avoid. If you’re trying to convince people in charge of the “who gets to be a new teacher” standards that you’re actually competent (and that they are the ones who are wrong), you must bring your “A-game” every step of the way.
Remember, the first and foremost characteristic that a teacher must possess is credibility. Even a gym teacher (in my opinion) needs to be able to spell “gymnasium”. If you can’t demonstrate that you have mastered a certain (minimal) level of general knowledge, I most certainly don’t want you teaching my kids.
People should go back and read some of the replies. Time after time, I see situations where I can’t help but think to myself “This person isn’t doing us any favors when their comments are written like this!”.
I’m 100% in favor of having a “high bar” as far as who gets to teach. But the bar needs to be well-defined and (most importantly) attainable.
How many times have you taken that FELE 3.0 subtest? How much money have you spent on retests through Pearson? How many points do you keep failing by? Those of you still struggling with passing the Florida Educational Leadership Examination, version 3.0 (FELE 3.0), if you want to do something about it, please send me email at cantpassthefele3.0@gmail.com. I am looking for a group of candidates who want to go the next step and form a group for a class action lawsuit. Write to me soon. We need the numbers.
So, I have previously taken K-6 FTCE certification exams. I surely can tell the trickery involved in the end of the year 2015 thru 2016 testing. Unbelievable. Though I passed these exams recently, I was very disappointed to find that, before the end of 2015 the general pass rate for FTCE Educ. testing was over 80%. The fact that Pearson Vue and the DOE will not show pass rates for FL FTCE examinees during the time span of end 2015-2016 makes it evident to me that something corrupt is probably taking place. To know that the money maker, Pearson Vue, has teamed up with state certification leaders across the U.S… to embark on a money making venture that puts U.S. citizens at a great disadvantage is more than discouraging. It seems our leaders are not working for us, but they are working for the game…that is, unless they are just not intelligent enough to know the difference. So, so very sad what is happening.
Yes, I passed all of my exams recently, but let me tell you…. I had to answer many questions based on knowing that question/answer trickery was in place at my previous sittings, thus, I needed to choose answers based on tricky thinking. Guesswork. Ridiculous. I am telling you….. This Pearson Vue…if lawyers could get involved and take a look at the truth of what is taking place…they would be sued out the hooha. Oh…and, just so ya know…a month after I passed the reading part of the Gen. Ed. test, at a sitting for a different part of the test, Pearson Vue test proctors accidentally let me know that Pearson had since doubled the amount of test taking time for the Reading portion of the exam. So, my having passed at twice the speed as those testing after me (and I assume other reparations were probably made in regard to question “difficulty” and such)…and god only knows the speed at which those testing previous to me could have been …. It will look like the same exact score to admin. wanting to hire….as they only see a pass/fail, not test scores and pass rates.
Therefore, my passing these tests with 24% of those sitting for it, will be viewed equally with those having passed with over 80% of those sitting for it. This means during my test taking time frame, I had to pass with an A or B, while others before and after, could have passed with a D. Admin. have no clue what is occurring with Pearson Vue in reality. So, they have no idea of the disparity of pass percentiles, and thus differences in achievement.
And, poor college students who must be certified just to graduate these days. This is insanity and corrupt! Who the heck made that part of the college curriculum? What other career fields force you to be certified before graduation? You graduate given your coursework expectations, and then should have the option to move forward in your field, as so desired. You are the one paying for your degree, not Pearson Vue or the DOE.
My suggestion to you for retesting. Go in to that test guessing your but off…at least on the reading part… on those questions in doubt, you will often need to go for the more doubted response (I know…ridiculous)…go with your gut. And for the essay…think very small, very simplistic…as professionals are not grading these essays…but those with high school degrees and such. Simple wording… Simple thinking… Or… no success for you. They aren’t hoping for sparkle. It’s a game, for cash, if you ask me.
When you write about the comparison between what used to be a D vs what is now an A, and the fact that they give you either a pass/fail, you’re talking about the rigor of the Florida Teacher Certification Exam (as well as the Florida Educational Leadership Exam that aspiring administrators have to pass). I don’t mind so much that they decided to increase the rigor of the exam in January 2014 (as part of the Common Core movement implemented in 2011 for K-12 state exams). I have an issue with the state making the decision to INCREASE THE PASSING SCORE of these certification exams in January 2015 (my experience is with the FELE). That alone has cause the high percentages of candidates to fail and not be able to reach the passing mark by mere points, even though they completed their 36-credit hour program with wonderful grades, proving to the university that we earned our diploma based on what they taught us. I am utterly pissed at the fact that I have invested so much money into a master’s degree I have not been able to complete because I have failed ONE of the 3 subtests of this state certification exam 5 times within 10 points of the mark (twice by 3 points. I passed two sections originally), and that I am part of the 76% of candidates who failed that subtest between Jan and Sept 2015. Some courses in my program at the university had to be revamped due to these high percentage of failures, and this alone speaks volumes!! Provisions should have been made for candidates during these times of transition. What has happened is that teachers have had to continue to pay high fees for each subtest they have not been able to pass, desperately trying to pass these subtest to be able to graduate, and being driven further into financial problems, while these certification exams are still being field-tested. God knows when Pearson will finally work out the kinks… but it’s not to their advantage to work these kinks out because these same kinks are their money makers. It’s a racket!!!!!!
Pearson also was part of raising the passing grade from C to B for PARCC and Smarter Balanced. They were also part of ratcheting up Lexile reading standards so that by graduation students must read one grade level higher than in past generations.
It’s a scam. Yet legislators and departments of education don’t seem aware of the leaps in expectations they approved.
Finally someone who feels what I feel!!!
A few thoughts:
1) Pearson is a private-industry “vendor”. Perhaps a vendor that has been handed a far-too-powerful position, but ultimately, they answer to the Department of Education. If you focus your ire at Pearson, they will simply point their fingers back at The DoE. Notice that when you go to the DoE and complain, they don’t say “take it to Pearson”. Responsibility in this situation always rests solely with the DoE. The DoE created this mess. Pearson only does what they think they can get away with when their client (the DoE) is not watching the hen house very closely.
2) You are not likely to find a sympathetic audience if you decide to make the increased rigor of the exam the focus on your complaint. One of the biggest goals in education reform is to have more rigorous requirements (of new teachers, of administrators, of student graduates, etc). I don’t think you’ll find much public sympathy if a bunch of administrative hopefuls start saying “the exam is too hard”. In this current climate, you’ll never get people on your side if you’re asking them to approve making exams less rigorous. That’s like asking the state to make prisons have fewer bars and fewer walls. People simply won’t get on-board with that. But you can ask for (and expect) fairness.
3) You do have strong points in that Pearson seems to have done a rotten job in scoring the exam, probably uses unqualified people to DO the scoring, and that they do not offer a fair “challenge” process when an exam-taker decides to challenge the results. It can also be well-argued that Pearson has an obvious conflict of interest in seeing people fail the exam (and for making the exam amazingly expensive to take…and re-take). Pearson also seems to have done a very poor job in creating exam-prep materials that fail to adequately direct people towards certain texts they may (or may not) have had to study in their masters programs. They also are not providing the public (IE, you folks) with any data in regards to which specific areas of the exam are being failed.
4) Clearly the DoE has already said “we’re done with the exam” and do not intend to revisit it anytime soon. It would seem that (for political reasons) the DoE’s leadership doesn’t want to appear to be “lessening the rigor” of the exam by helping you pass. Perhaps the whole idea is to “clamp down” on the quality of those being allowed into administrative positions, and having a very high exam standard is their way of limiting entry. If that’s the case, you’re fighting philosophy rather than negligence. And that might reach all the way to your governor. From what I’ve read about Rick Scott, he’s not exactly thrilled by the current state of the education system, and he’s looking to seriously disrupt the status quo.
5) Looking back at the responses of others (many of them people struggling to pass subject-level exams for even a basic teaching certification), a LOT of them seem to have trouble with spelling and basic English grammar / mechanics. Those people make the case for having increased rigor. They’re just not helping you.
The quality of Pearson test scorers is variable. First of all, they’re paid $11.50 an hour, which means they may or may not have enough skills for a better job. Second, low wages encourage them to grab bonuses by rushing through more essays. Third, a paltry few are teachers, which means they just follow a model and look for key words. Fifth, the industry standard alots just two minutes per lengthy essay, which leads many to grade on length, not content. Sixth, Pearson employees who work from home complain they don’t always receive training or it takes days to get their questions answered by the help desk.
Our local substitute teacher applications are graded on the use of key words, which means you have to find out what they are from an insider. Maybe that approach and emphasizing length would help you pass the test.
It seems to be in the very nature of these private industry vendors to exploit all opportunities to maximize profit margins. It’s the trickle-down effect of “smaller government”. Remember, Rick Scott is all for the increased outsourcing of educational services, as people like him feel that the free market model always ensures the highest levels of quality, as customers will always demand high quality. But what if the client (in this case the DoE) doesn’t seem interesting in demanding quality? That’s the true dilemma, as we later discover that most private education outsourcing is heavily connected to political relationships / lobbying.
Very few states still have Education departments with a staff that’s robust enough to handle all of this certification work in-house. Pearson has created a very nice niche for themselves.
Not that it will happen anytime soon, but Pearson shouldn’t be trusted to handle any kind of subjective essay grading. I had very a frustrating experience with them myself just a few years ago. And it’s only going to get worse, as we’re starting to see an increasing shift towards using AI to score written submissions. That’s INSANE.
Another thought for those of you who are just tired of endlessly sinking money into the exam:
The guy in charge of these exams at the DoE mentioned how these exams were developed by committees. These committees were obviously made up of individuals. Find out who was on the committee for your respective exam. Contact them and explain your situation. Hire one of them for a private tutoring session (as an “exam-taking consultant”). These people can probably give you the valuable insight that your academic programs have missed.
Should you have to do this? No, of course not. But you’re seeing that this is a very tough “nut” to crack. I’d imagine that if the original poster could choose between an expensive lawsuit and paying $250 to a university professor for private consulting (just to move forward) she’d probably choose the latter.
Hire one of the test makers as a tutor?
All right. I’ve read your comments trashing some of the victims of this racket. I didn’t say anything about it because I thought you might have had a minor point in a few cases. And yet it struck me that you were barking up the wrong tree.
The person who originated this thread is a perfectly competent writer. The others you’re complaining about may be guilty of a few careless typos and the occasional usage error, but as far as I can tell, the exam in question isn’t a test of editing skills. In fact, I believe that some of the people you’re picking nits with were having trouble with the math test. In any case, the standard of writing for blog comments isn’t editorial perfection.
I find your general attitude condescending and not exactly to the point: when a candidate repeatedly misses a passing score by a few points and is required to pay repeatedly for a retake, there’s more wrong with the test and the scoring than with the test takers.
I wouldn’t have commented at all, but now you’re calling for both the test takers and the test makers to commit obvious violations of ethics. Have you taken leave of your senses?
They can’t find an attorney willing to even “consider” bringing a lawsuit. Of course this whole matter is a s__t sandwich, and yes, they are victims. Of COURSE this is injustice. No question about it. There are many people who failed the subtests by just a few points, but the DoE has absolutely no interest in calling this problematic.
The victims here have virtually no avenues of relief. Probably none. I know that if I faced a choice of either a legal battle that I couldn’t afford to wage, a bottomless pit of exam retakes, paying back loans for a graduate degree I couldn’t complete… or one hour with someone that created the exam… I’d choose the latter. This issue has sat on the stove cooking for months, with NO forward progress. What would you do?
And I’ll stick with what I wrote about those people who were having trouble passing subject-level exams. Many of them could barely spell.
I don’t know, sounds like bribery to me. And I’m guessing the test writers agreed not to sell their inside knowledge of the test to potential test takers. I’m not discounting your good intentions, but if you don’t see the ethical problems there, I can’t help you.
Also, you don’t know if the bad spellers have actually taken the test. And sorry, bad spelling doesn’t disqualify someone from being a great teacher or administrator. Or writer. My favorite poet, William Butler Yeats, won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and he couldn’t spell. At all. These tests and the way they’re graded don’t serve their stated purpose. (Nor would a spelling test.) They’re just a very shady cash cow.
Have I done anything? Well, I must have written a comment here. Otherwise I wouldn’t be receiving emails containing new comments. In fact, I’ve made way too many blog comments about Pearson and its rackets, the Common Core, and other education scams. After I read about this one, I called both of my legislators to protest the use of edTPA as a certification instrument, a related scam. I’ve flown to Washington, DC, on three separate occasions to protest high stakes testing and undue corporate influence (especially from outfits like Pearson) on US education. Yeah, I’ve done anything.
I’ve repeatedly suggested the solutions of educating the public as to what’s going on, and putting pressure on legislators. The horror stories have to go public, or things will just get worse.
Well, it’s only bribery if there is some kind of quid quo pro. It’s entirely possible to review exam topics without crossing the line of questionable ethics. Certainly no less ethical than Pearson taking the senior state certifications officials to lunch every now and again.
And how (exactly) does hiring a committee member as a tutor actually cross the line of ethics (for either party)? I never suggested anything other than tutoring. Certainly nothing illicit (or in the league of exam cheating).
And… You’ll rise up to take me to task on my opinions, but what have you done to take on THIS ISSUE? Anything? Have you suggested a single solution?
I finished my post grad education in August 2010, I have taken four subject area exams the last k-6 which I passed the science,and social studies, I failed the language art/reading by two questions and challenge it for $75 it didn’t work the department of education said I failed that subtest… Two questions, the math I didn’t have the reference sheet and found out after from Pearson it was a icon tab… I have taken integrated 2010 186 score, middle grade science 188, social studies 6-12 with a 196….I’m discussed and felt dumb then I heard the same things from a elementary inter that 62% of her graduating class failed 3 sub test or all…
I think its a scam. And I will take it one more time, one of the three probably elementary but after that Im going to legally fight them..its not right. If I can’t work in any other field cause I have been teaching on a temp license 3 and substituting for over 6 years what could I use as a reference to change careers.
And the inter I worked with said the same thing they can’t graduate with their BS or start their Grad studies in the pro teach program till they past.
I’ve been out of school 6 years beside subitute teaching and past half almost three sub.test that’s good if 62% young graduates immersed in the texts ….aren’t passing but then that’s a red light too…
What is going on? Maybe not enough of florida lottery money isnt going to education, and Pearson is kicking back to the state fat cash for writing impossible exams that may be scored funny and have a certain number of question skew that no one can answer right unless it was a lucky guess.. That’s where you get real close like two points.
And if the florida of department get big bucks from Pearson then where’s all that money going…cause our lunch programs suck,our text books are low, and teacher supply and paper rations etc from school to school…I see all schools as a sub.
Hi,
I just came across your blog about pear sons and the FLDOE and I to am very frustrated. I was given the opportunity to teach pre k Austin- developmentally delayed children. I have to take the pre-k/3 exam and have done so 3 times , never passing. I work with special need children and this test is based on basic education which I have no to clue. I ordered the study book , read it 4 times and what is in the book is not on the test.. This is my last year to pass it . I too have to pay $225 every time I take it. I do have my K-12 ESE certification but that is not good enough. I also need my GK math in which I do not even teach basic math , it’s all patterning lol but the state wants me to know geometry and algebra.. It’s a joke !They are 3 and 4 year old babies with delays. This state needs to re consider these test’s especially since they cannot keep teachers. I score very well on my observations and parents are happy with me and how far their children have come but that does not matter to the state. It is so frustrating I have no idea what to do anymore, I am at a loss.
I am experiencing the same thing with the revised written exam. I have passed the 3 Miltiple choice portions. I have taken the essay 4 times now. Got a 6 when I needed a 7 to pass. Same category “effective communication practices” I got tutoring in that area from a professor that specializes inthe Fele. I enhanced the essay each time. Something is very very wrong. I am a highly effective teacher in high school and received a 4.0 in my master’s program. This has totally devastated my self esteem. I have spent a ton of money on retakes and study materials. It is such a scam. I ampearson makes money and Florida does not have to give me a raise for earning my master’s.
I had heard the horror stories about the FELE from fellow classmates trying to pass it. As I started going through the questions, I began to see why everyone was so upset. Those questions are ridiculous! I was so upset when I got the unofficial back and found out I did not pass Subtest 2. Then I had to wait on Subtest 3 to be scored because it was in “score delay” (not sure how this is possible or why it is needed with MC questions but okay). I was lost on what to look over. I saw this website on an earlier post and can say the study guide really helped me! https://www.feleprep.com/materials.aspx?DepID=2. Now they are NOT cheap but the practice tests alone blow the DOEs out of the water. Thankfully I passed Subtest 2 last attempt and just wanted to share what I used. Not trying to do a sales pitch about the materials, but I do know what it feels like to not pass and then not know what to look over. Good luck to you all!
I always had my own misgivings about Pearson, but this week, I did some digging regarding Pearson and their exam administration monopoly. The situation is pretty darn screwed. They earn millions in government-awarded contracts to create and administer these exams. Once they’ve created these rather (ahem) “unique” exams (that may or may not align well with university teaching on specialized subject matters), they then become the sole resource for exam preparation. Meaning that they’ll sell the exam takers some VERY expensive exam-prep materials. And not even in printed form. Accessible in an online-read-only format.
Simply put, after they win their expensive exam development contracts, they proceed onward with some very serious price-gouging. Not just on study materials, but on the exams themselves, as well as re-takes.
I know I’ve said (many times) that your collective beefs are really with your respective states, I’ve come to modify my view somewhat (I’m still not letting the states off their hooks). Pearson is a monster.
I know I suggested a legal strategy of SUE SUE SUE. I think it’s sad that no attorneys or unions are willing to intervene. But perhaps it’s time to level some crosshairs on Pearson. Perhaps it would be more wise to try getting the various teachers unions to unite and target Pearson’s outrageous problem with:
Scoring (and its incompetency in properly doing so)
Transparency (and their lack OF it)
Price gouging (which they so obviously practice)
Exam prep (and their exclusive monopoly on content)
How can I find out what questions I missed!! Please help!!!
Well stated. Indiana’s Pearson math teacher’s test has a similar sting. #4 In Indiana, results to questions are not available for purchase.
I also have had a terrible experience !! I have taken the test about 5 times the subjest area test! I have failed it by a few points and everytime I take it it’s a different test. They are really jurking us! Something shoukd be done.
I took the FTCE today for the first time. Now, I’m not a cocky person but I will say this…I know what I am doing. I studied from the Cliffnotes book and I can tell you the content of the book as well as what page find it on. Yet I failed the FTCE. I only passed one subtest and I’m very confused. I though I would of passed. I do believe in some way. It is rigged.
I hope some people here are seeing the similarities between this situation and what students are now going through with PARCC. In the old days, it was always about “answering the question correctly”. People knew what kinds of questions were almost always asked on the exams, and they studied accordingly. But times have shifted. Not just for kids, but for the adults.
It’s no longer about the questions, but rather the fundamental concepts behind them. The theory is, if you actually have a deep understanding of the fundamental concept, most any question thrown at you should be within your mental grasp. The kids have spent the last three years thoroughly adapting to this reality. For example, in the reading prompts, high school students are now asked to understand the material in such a way that they can make logical inferences based on what they’ve read, and answer questions with answers that can’t be “skimmed” out of a paragraph. They actually have to read and DEEPLY understand what they’re reading.
Unfortunately, lots of people reach adulthood without the ability to make inferences based purely on other forms of evidence. They require literal road maps to the correct answers, and now that they no longer receive these maps, they cry foul. Yes, they read the study guide, and looked for all of the right answers. But they didn’t understand the concepts in such a way that they could teach it to someone else.
I’m not saying that Pearson and the state of Florida aren’t sitting on top of a really screwed-up situation. They are. But I think more than a few of the people failing these exams are still stuck in 1980’s test-taking modes. In today’s world, if you truly want that low-paying brass ring of a certification, apparently you’ve gotta have Navy SEAL-esque determination and drive.
I suspect that very soon, Florida will see that they’re running out of available incoming certified teachers. I also suspect that no district superintendent wants to be the first one to go on-record as saying that they want the state to relax the standards. The state is certainly aware of the fail-rate now, as people here have raised the issue directly. And those people have raised their middle fingers in response. “This is the bar. REACH IT” is what they’re saying. Myself? I say it’s fundamentally not worth it anymore. Not enough reward for the gargantuan investment of one’s money and dedication.
Patrick:
“The theory is, if you actually have a deep understanding of the fundamental concept, most any question thrown at you should be within your mental grasp. The kids have spent the last three years thoroughly adapting to this reality. For example, in the reading prompts, high school students are now asked to understand the material in such a way that they can make logical inferences based on what they’ve read, and answer questions with answers that can’t be “skimmed” out of a paragraph. They actually have to read and DEEPLY understand what they’re reading.”
Is that so? Where’s the evidence that kids have thoroughly adapted to the awful PARCC tests, that the “theory” you mention actually gets put into practice in those tests, that PARCC test questions can’t be answered without “deep” understanding? Did somebody tell you that? If so, why did you believe them?
And if you think it’s also true of this Florida test, how do you know? Maybe I missed it from an earlier comment . . . Did you take the test? Either way, do you really believe that people who just barely missed passing it are incapable of making an inference?
My impressions of the PARCC tests are based on sample test items and on reports by teachers who have given the tests and students who have taken them. If in fact you’re a teacher who has administered these tests, maybe you could elaborate on the experience. Surely you don’t think these are well conceived, well written, properly scored, valid and reliable tests? Is there any evidence that the Florida test is even as good as PARCC?
AdapTING, not adapted.
I believe in the concepts and thinking behind common core, but I think that the exams have been created and administered by complete morons. Of course not every question is dependent on full, deep understanding of a concept, but oh-so-many of them are. I’ve not sat for any of the exams, as they’re held in a higher level of security than I’m privy to. Not even a Russian teenaged hacker can get a hold of them. However, I did participate in a lot of “Get ready for PARCC” training.
My evidence regarding the wishful teachers who can’t pass their certification exams stem from the types of responses they post. Responses such as “How do I find the questions?” Of course, these don’t seem to be the FELE crowd, but rather the FTCE.
As far as the Florida FELE test and its quality, I can’t personally answer that. I do know that the state seems perfectly satisfied and is not particularly interested in pulling the latch and taking a look under the hood (so to speak). Perhaps it was their actual GOAL to thin the herd a bit. What do you think? I do remember my own “professional knowledge” exam that was highly subjective. One thing’s for sure: If you were not deeply familiar with the specific research / researchers the state wanted you to fawn over, you were not going to be allowed to teach.
I know that in my own school, the halls are filled with plenty of people who’ve slugged through low-quality M.EdL degrees and passed our own state exams. Many of whom I think are actually complete dunces. Our district has about 25 “technically qualified” teachers who openly pine for one of the 16 slots that actually exist. And at $85K per year (yes, I know that’s low for most states), very few of these currently-seated administrators are going ANYWHERE soon. Lots of student loan debt to pay back, that’s for sure.
Myself, I’d sooner go to a casino than gamble my future income on grabbing that specific masters degree and taking that specific exam. It seems like a fool’s errand. However, I do detest when a government department such as Florida’s won’t put an end to the literal hijacking that’s going on in regards to the FELE.
I still wonder why these affected teachers aren’t doing more to get their UNIONS on their feet and hustling to solve the problem. It’s what you’re supposed to be paying dues for. But in reality, a ton of those dues go to fund Randi Weingarten’s pet lobbying projects. The biggest of which was just flushed down the toilet in November.
I should also clarify my position regarding standardized testing. I personally think it’s all a complete farce. ALL OF IT. These exams are predictors of virtually nothing except for future grief. Changing the difficulty level of FELE (in one direction or another) will have virtually no impact on the qualitative efficacy of these candidates. Likewise for FTCE. The best expression of my feelings can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0kXNt9dbdc
Education is (at it’s core) a pretty simple societal role. But we’ve spent the last 160 years making it really difficult for ourselves.
Education quality will always vary. Trying to pin-down exactly why is the TRUE fool’s errand. We’re always trying to quantify the unquantifiable.
Teachers should be naturally curious people that have some higher degree of passion for their specialty or subject than the rest of us. They should be good communicators, and they should be creative and resourceful enough to modify their methods as time goes on. If they seem to have lost this passion, or they seem to have lost that spark of curiosity or creativity, they should either move onward or “be moved” onward.
Administrators should be good managers of people who deeply understand the above. They should understand public policy, law, politics and the basic truths of learning.
Students are what they are. Some of them are willing participants in their learning opportunity and others are not. One thing is for certain: They all have different levels of readiness for learning. Yet we’re obsessed with comparing them all to their same-age peers. To do so makes about as much sense as a penis measuring contest. The thing is, in most cases, people come around and seek-out the opportunity to learn either A) What they WANT to learn or B) What they NEED to learn. Some kids (a minority) fully embrace our education system as it’s been presented to them from day one through twelfth grade . They are deemed “successful”. Kids who aren’t quite ready to proactively meet thier presented educational opportunity are deemed to be “failures”. We need to get past this concept of the “end date” and “graduation” and the rush to accomplish X by that supposed end date.
Education needs to simply “be there” and open to welcoming all who wish to learn (whenever they actually wish to learn it).
As far as published authors, the only person that seems to understand these fundamental truths is a gentleman names John Taylor Gatto. Look him up and read his work. He has no PhD. He never passed an administrators’ exam. The guy taught ELA in the NYC public school system and then woke up and saw things for what they really were.
Patrick: I told you the Florida Teacher Association, our “union” in this Right to Work state shut me down the times I approached them about this issue. I talked to their legislative rep three times until they started giving me the run around and finally told me there was nothing they could do about an exam the state allowed this company to deliver. That’s why I keep telling those in the same predicament to keep contacting FTA and let them know their experience with passing the certification exam(s).
I think the tea leaves show us that the state wanted to “thin the herd”, and has effectively done so with FTA buy-in (to some extent, at least). Here we are, a year later, and no one has done anything to respond to your concerns.
FTA knows about it. They don’t care. State knows about it. No looking under the hood.
Have you thought about the possibility that only certain “favored people” have passed? Have you considered interviewing those who have, to find some common string? Perhaps some of these people can give you insight.
Sorry this dishonor has happened to you. Have you barked up the tree of the media?
From what I remember, the DOE guy said that a committee of higher ed scholars created the questions (or at least evaluated and approved them) and created the rubric for a passing score. If those meetings were anything like the summer curriculum “concentration camps” I was used to experiencing, they were likely pretty short. People tend to do their worst work when on committees.
The first problem likely lies in the scoring itself, not in the prompts being too hard. The second problem lies in the lack of transparency regarding the scoring procedure.
Now look at things another way. Actual “new administrator” demand vs. the number of candidates actually passing the exam… plus the existing pool of already qualified candidates. How big is the existing pool versus the rate of demand? Is there an imbalance? What percentage of candidates with the cert actually find administrator positions? Has there been a consistent “glut” of qualified candidates in recent years? Is the state purposefully trying to cut down the pool to a more manageable size?
Patrick, they lied.
Diane, you’re probably right. I came into education from private industry. I’m still used to “most” people not lying to me from day-to-day, but in the education field, lying seems to be standard practice. I’m still very sad that these supposed “thuggish teachers unions” that everyone is so upset about won’t actually get thuggish about something when it counts. Seriously, what good are these organizations in the right-to-work states if they won’t exercise even a slight bit of influence?
In Right to Work States, unions have little or no influence because it was legislated away with most or all workers rights and protections.
The title Right to Work should have been “Work without Job Protection State” for less pay and less benefits.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/14160-whats-wrong-with-the-right-to-work
My own personal experience in my own right-to-work state is that so long as the unions don’t “overplay their cards”, they can often have significant influence not only on issues that affect many, but they can also be quite helpful to individuals. However, due to the fact that no one can be contractually forced to join, many unions hesitate to even attempt to participate in dialogue, or intervene on behalf of its members. Those are the unions with declining (or pitiful) membership numbers.
Remember, not every issue that a union brings up must be backed by some veiled threat to go on strike (not that they’re allowed in r-2-w states anyway). Unions absolutely DO represent large numbers of interested people, and hopefully, those with calm heads in positions within the DoE will pay attention.
In my own small district (just 4 schools), the last thing in the world our board and Superintendent ever wanted was for us to become “active” (code word for “angry”) so when we (the union) spoke up on important issues (“as” the union), they almost always listened. But, like I said, you only play those cards every so often.
I think THIS is an issue the union should be playing their cards on. It’s statewide, and apparently it goes deeper than FELE.
Hey I totally agree with all of y’all!! I’ve just took the FTCE Physical Education exam today for the third time and failed it, I’m trying to understand why the hell cant I pass it as well!! The study material I have doesn’t work, the question they have on the exam are completely different questions or answers for the exam then what I study. I wish they would charge is at least $100 to retake the test, but we have to pay a arm n leg for it. Now I know why a lot of people I talk to say oh i didn’t study for it and passed! That’s because it was so much easier then. We need to complain or protest against the state about this test and making it difficult for us to pass it and get a real job.
Write to the Florida Education Association. This is what everyone who is having issues with the Florida teacher certification exams should be doing. The higher ups want accountability, but they only want teachers to be accountable (after 4 or 2 years of going through university to get your certification only to sit for a rigged exam) without them taking responsibility for the mess they have created by using Pearson as vendor of the exams. Write FEA legal department and let them know. I was all by myself when I did it. The message must be sent by all affected, not only a few if we want support.
The Gk essay passing score changed over a year ago from a 6 to an 8 has anyone seen the new rubric. If so can you please share. Took this essay 3 times and cannot seem to score higher than a 6.
It doesn’t really matter what the rubric is, as you’ll never get the opportunity to defend the quality of your submission against whatever it may be. It’s like a secret court.
I took the FELE in its entirety on December 27, 2016. I got my unofficial results for the first 2 subtests and had passed both. The 3rd MC section was under revision and therefore the unofficial score was unavailable at the time of testing. That was stated on the FELE/FTCE website very clearly, so no big deal there. I received my official scores for all 4 sub-tests 3 weeks later and had passed all of the MC sections, but received a score of 6 on my written portion. I am scheduled now to challenge that score through a score verification session. I will gladly come back and describe all portions of that process as I experience them.
Honestly, I would not expect Pearson to change a score for MC items. They wrote them with a certain answer in mind as being correct. It makes sense to them that that is the one true answer. Talking someone into believing that their own creation is imperfect is not going to happen, especially when they stand to profit from your “lack of understanding” of their logic and reasoning, no matter how off-base it may be. Written items, however, are far more subjective, and therefore, I am willing to roll the proverbial dice and see what insight I can glean from going through the process.
For what it is worth, I did not purchase any study guides before taking the exam. I did, however, take the FELE prep class through the American College of Education (ace.edu). It was $270, and was a 5-week course with instructors who have either designed or scored the FELE in the past. The best part is that I still have access to all of the class materials. I can just sign into my portal and access all of the materials of the course basically forever. That is where I got my Educational Leadership degree as well, and I highly recommend them. It’s all online, but they do have a brick and mortar school in Chicago.
Anyway, I found this blog by searching for what % of people who challenge FELE scores are successful. Apparently, those numbers are not available anywhere. If I am successful, I will certainly share any tips or tricks that I know of for other test-takers out there fighting the good fight. Also, if anyone wants to re-post this information or anything I post in the future to Facebook, that is fine with me. I do not use any social media, so I will not be posting it myself.
Keep your fingers crossed that I come out with some useful information for all of us!!!
Hello again, Diane and everyone else who’ve taken interest in this issue by posting your thoughts, ideas, and encouraging words. Teachers in Florida need your help. A very brave 21-year veteran teacher in my state was fortunate to catch the interest of an ABC News reporter who wants to investigate why so many teachers are failing the state certification exams (both the Florida Educational Leadership and the Florida Teacher Certification Exams). You could view the report here: http://www.wptv.com/longform/teachers-failing-state-certification-test-at-alarming-rates . I wonder if I could reach out to those of you who have worked at Pearson grading teachers state certification tests. If you have or know someone who has and would be willing to support our efforts to bring this to the public light, please contact me at cantpassthefele3.0@gmail.com. Thanks.
Today I failed the Math GK test for the 8th time. I really thought it was a bit easier, I guess not. Why do I keep failing you ask? Well I teach Art and never use anything more than simple arithmetic, don’t need it and don’t use it. This is the last time I will try to pass this test. I passed all of the other required tests on the first try. I have spent close to 1500.dollars on the math test alone. Between the tests,$150. each, books, tutors, classes, it has added up. I don’t think this profession is worth all the trouble.
Hello, Pamela. I want to fight this in my state. If you’re in Florida, I have some good news for you. A reporter from the local ABC News station is currently interviewing teachers who are living the same experience as you. If interested in joining our fight against Pearson, the test vendor in Florida (and it seems most everywhere else), then send me an email to cantpassthefele3.0@gmail.com. I hope you do. We need the numbers; we need you and everyone else you know who are going through the very same madness. After the first piece of news aired about two months ago on this issue, that teacher is suing the dept of education and seven of us followed up with another report that aired tonight, (Yes, Patrick, something is being done… just wish us luck!). Dear Pamela, you’re not alone. You’re not crazy either and it is definitely not your fault that you have failed this exam 8 times. Tell me… have you failed by just a couple of points in any of those tries? If so, this company is certainly doing something wrong with these exams and/or their scoring methods. We must fight this. I hope you write soon and join us. The reporter, Kathy LaGrone, from ABC News Tampa, is seeking teachers living these experiences with the state teacher or educational leadership certification exams. If you know of any other colleagues in the same predicament, share this with them as well.
This is what’s starting to happen in Florida: http://www.abcactionnews.com/longform/florida-teachers-failing-frustrated-teacher-test-scores-not-improving-new-state-numbers-show
Some more good news from Florida. Published in the Huffington Post January 18, 2017 about Pearson. I LOVE IT! Thanks, Alan Singer! http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58d8e4a5e4b0c0980ac0e7ce/amp
I strongly agree with you and anyone who have not passed all the parts of the fele. Something needs to be done by our districts, they want leaders but are not helping to get you there. Yes, Pearson pockets is getting fat and the state is getting a fat percentage as well. This is not right, I have taken this test 10 times. I would love to move up as AP but can’t not due this unnecessary test and the cost. The study material online is out dates. My district don’t how to help and my questions to them why in the hell are you making me take this test.
If this is Pearson Edexcel you’re referring to, it doesn’t surprise me. I’m a middle-aged man who wants to do an Access course. I’m required to provide proof of a certain standard in English and having lost my original certificates, I needed to apply to Pearson for a Certified Statement of Results. Because their website was so poorly designed, meaning I couldn’t find a way to tell them about my situation and what I required, I wrote. All my contact details were included but they couldn’t be bothered to reply until recently. I’d written about once a month for five months and telephoned to speak to a recorded voice talking about Covid 19. Trying to get an apology was
like pulling teeth and ,bearing in mind I took those exams almost forty years ago, my application was delayed because I didn’t know the Centre Number etc. Eventually, when they claimed they had no record of my email address – despite having received it in all my letters – I told them I’d reached the end of my tether and wouldn’t pay
the ridiculous sum they wanted for their questionable services. There’s a chance I may not need a formal document when I enrol and I hope this is the case because I too hate Pearson and want nothing further to do with them.
my story is very similar – I have not been able to pass subtest 3. I have taken it 5 times (today). I will pay to review the questions I missed, because I just don’t know what else to do. I have missed by 3 points every time. It’s crazy that people I know who passed it in the past had a lower score than mine and now are APs or principals. I am also Hispanic. I have studied so hard every time for this test. I too have not received my diploma from my college (NOVA) until I pass this test. If you have any suggestions on how to pass subtest 3 (MC) I would love it.
For Dawn from above:
Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine. (updated 6/24/13 per Wilson email)
1. A description of a quality can only be partially quantified. Quantity is almost always a very small aspect of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category only by a part of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as unidimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing the descriptive information about said interactions is inadequate, insufficient and inferior to the point of invalidity and unacceptability.
A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other words all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. And a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word: “So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it attempts to measure “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self-evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.