[Testing expert Fred Smith points out that Questar is owned by ETS. Much ado about nothing.]
Tennessee Governor Haslam says the state may drop Questar, its exam vendor, because of three straight years of problems with the state tests.
The contract may go to ETS, he said.
One positive note in the testing failure is that data won’t be available to assign low-scoring schools to the failed and ineffectual “Achievement School District.”
Tennessee likes to boast about how it moved from the cellar on NAEP to the middle, but the article cited here was written before the release of NAEP 2017, where scores in the state mostly declined compared to 2015.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Tennessee likes to boast about how it moved from the cellar on NAEP to the middle. . . ”
Plain and simple, don’t give a damn about those COMPLETELY INVALID NAEP standardized test scores. The results mean absolutely nothing, just like all the rest of the standardized test results. Results that have resulted in the complete bastardization of the teaching and learning process throughout this country (and other countries).
When will we learn, when will we ever learn?
I fear never, but then again New Zealand is in the process of getting rid of its standards and testing regime, needless to say with a cacophony of howling from those who make bank on said testing.
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The last time I checked ETS had acquired Questar. So, I double checked and Questar is a subsidiary of ETS. Here’s the blurb on ETS’ official site.
Questar® Assessment Inc. is a K–12 assessment solutions provider focused on building a bridge between learning and accountability. It shares a belief with ETS that better measurement solutions can make a positive impact on education. Its approach to meaningful assessment, its technical innovations for scalable and reliable online testing performance, and its commitment to empowering educators with insights to improve instruction exemplify what it means to be a dedicated assessment partner.
What then to make of Tennessee’s Education Commissioner statement that the state is going to move “all of our test development and design” to ETS, which has a reputation for very high quality work.”.
Let’s do a truth table here. 1) If Questar is lousy in running the “problem-plagued” Tennessee testing system (the rollout of online testing is implicated); and 2) If Questar is owned by ETS; then 3) ETS will deliver a good testing program. True or False?
By the way. the same Questar appears to be screwing up the New York State Testing Program. Questar replaced Pearson as the contractor/test vendor after 5 years. It, too, was awarded a 5-year contract ($44 million). Shortly after that, Questar was acquired by ETS–at the beginning of 2017. This year, with the program under the auspices of Questar (and the aegis of ETS), there were snafus with the computer-based testing operation, as well as complaints by parents about the appropriateness of the exams.
Will the NYS Education Department do anything to investigate the matter and dump Questar? Nah.
So glad this blog let’s us see the links in the chain of education’s continuing contamination in the free-ranging hands of the greedy and incompetent private sector.
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That is hilarious!
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“Questar® Assessment Inc. is a K–12 assessment solutions provider focused on building a bridge between learning and accountability. It shares a belief with ETS that better measurement solutions can make a positive impact on education.”
Yeah, that bridge leads to some beautiful white sand ocean front beach property over at Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri that I am selling quite cheaply. First come first served. Operators standing by.
These people actually believe that they are “measuring” something, ya know, “better measurement solutions can make. . . ”
Yes, perhaps a true measurement solution might do that but the fact is there is no measurement going on with their assessments, all of their pleadings notwithstanding. And that “true measurement solution” can never be found because that which they say they are attempting to assess, evaluate, analyze, albeit in a pisspoor fashion, can never be “measured”.
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So, they take off their Questar badge and put on their ETS badge?
Is that how it works?
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SomeDAM,
Pearson – Questar – ETS
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
All wear the same medallion, a solid gold dollar sign.
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Wonderful. I was about to check on some of the relationships between the two companies. You saved me from that exercise. Acquisitions are proliferating in part because the testing companies want to recycle items if they can get away with that.
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Kevin Huffman is still here in Tennessee. Read the Chiefs for Change TN Policy paper under the ESSA category on the Chiefs For Change website
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When will we be rid of the Huffman malignancy?
https://www.facebook.com/RemoveKevinHuffman
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The only people in Tennessee who claim success on NAEP are those whose policies need to be vindicated by scores in order to keep,their jobs. Teachers do not believe it.
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We have PARCC here in MD and the Governor has stated that he will not allow MSDE to renew the contract with Pearson. He states that MD will develop a computer adaptive test with the help of Meridian (or New Meridian). Seems Meridian manages PARCC? I don’t understand because I thought Pearson owned PARCC?
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Lisa M,
I checked with resident testing guru Fred Smith about the relationship between Meridian and PARCC. PARCC is shriveling. Fred said the operative word is “incest.”
He sent this article.
EDUCATION WEEK
PARCC and Smarter Balanced Choose New Management By Catherine Gewertz on April 28, 2017
UPDATED The PARCC consortium has chosen a new nonprofit to manage the business of maintaining and administering its test: New Meridian Corp., a brand-new organization led by people from various strands of the assessment world.
Friday’s announcement marks yet another stage of transition for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, which has lost most of its original state members. Only six states and the District of Columbia are using the test this year, and that number will drop by one more next year.
In February 2016, the PARCC governing board solicited feedback from the assessment field on how it might change its structure and approach to best meet clients’ needs.
It issued a request for proposals last December, but received only two responses: from Parcc Inc., the nonprofit that’s been managing the consortium since December 2013, and from New Meridian. New Meridian will begin its work in July. The term and total value of the contract were not yet available, since its terms are still being negotiated.
Prioritizing Flexibility
PARCC leaders told Education Week that the agreement with New Meridian reflects two years of discussions with states to reshape itself to respond best to their needs. New Mexico Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera, who chairs PARCC’s governing board, called the agreement with New Meridian “a culminating moment” of PARCC’s transition to an organizational model that prioritizes flexibility, educator input, state leadership, and quality test design.
PARCC isn’t the only assessment consortium making a transition. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium—the other state group that, like PARCC, won federal grants in 2010 to design new tests for the common core—announced this week that it has switched fiscal agents. After three years of working with the University California-Los Angeles, Smarter Balanced will begin using UC-Santa Cruz’s Silicon Valley Extension in June to provide financial, administrative, and human-resource services.
New Meridian’s website shows a board of directors and leadership team with resumes in the worlds of assessment, accountability and program management. With support from two foundations, the organization formed in September 2016 to respond to respond to PARCC’s anticipated request for proposals.
Its president and CEO, Arthur VanderVeen, who has spent the past 14 years at Compass Learning, the New York City Department of Education, and the College Board, told Education Week that he and his team interviewed the leaders of 14 states—current and former PARCC states, some who use Smarter Balanced, and some who haven’t used either consortium test—to get a sense of their testing priorities.
State leaders said they valued the chance to brainstorm with other states about testing, and they emphasized their need to be able to customize the length and content of their tests, VanderVeen said. States familiar with PARCC gave it high marks for content quality, he said. Based on that feedback, New Meridian will put a high priority on flexibility and ensuring quality content, VanderVeen said.
New Meridian’s project includes four subcontractors. Pearson will work with states on test-item development. The Center for Assessment will provide technical advisory services, including ensuring test results are valid and comparable across states. Odell Education will conduct quality assurance reviews of test content. The Human Resources Research Organization, known as HumRRO, will oversee PARCC’s research agenda.
Staying in Business
Sustainability has been an issue for both consortia as the end of their federal funding near drew. That $360 million was meant only to support the design of the tests. Once they made their operational debut, in 2014-15, financial responsibility for sustaining the tests shifted to the states. Both consortia have lost membership, but Smarter Balanced has maintained a larger stable of states using its test—14 this year—than has PARCC.
Additionally, both consortia saw demand for their tests erode at the high school level. In the face of public opposition to lengthy tests, many states dumped PARCC or Smarter Balanced in favor of the SAT or ACT in high school. Increasingly, PARCC and Smarter Balanced are being used only in grades 3-8, as EdWeek has reported in its annual assessment survey.
VanderVeen said the consortium is “viable as is,” even without adding more members, but it still will place a priority on recruiting new states.
As PARCC’s “management vendor,” New Meridian will oversee the group’s new customizable licensing structure. PARCC announced that “tiered” system in November 2015, allowing states to buy parts of the test, or even groups of test questions, and to choose their own vendors for administration and scoring. Before that, PARCC states had to use the whole test, and also use Pearson for administration and scoring.
New Meridian will also oversee ongoing test-question development. States can develop their own items to contribute to PARCC’s item bank, and Pearson will also work with states to create items.
Each PARCC state will now negotiate a separate contract with New Meridian to customize the services it wants. In Smarter Balanced, each state chooses its own vendor to administer and score the test, but the group does not currently offer states the option of buying just pieces of the exam.
UPDATED Leaders of Parcc Inc. issued a statement saying they “are proud of our work to establish PARCC as a high-quality state assessment program and wish the PARCC states the best of luck in the next phase of this important work.” The organization will continue its work, serving other contracts besides the one with the PARCC consortium, according to a Parcc Inc. spokeswoman.
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An incestuous relationship between testing companies would presumably be “intestuous”
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Question: what do you get when you cross PARCC with the College Board?
Answer: Monopoly (PARCC place and Board walk)
“Monopoly”
They hide behind the Gates
At PARCC Place and at Boardwalk
Determining our fates
With oiligarchic board talk
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Thank you for this information! In MD PARCC Alg I and ELA 10 are graduation requirements. I am a Refuser since we have no opt out in MD. I got a phone call from admin (MS) a few weeks ago telling me to keep my child home from school on testing days this year (usually he goes to the office for the 2-3 hrs over 4 days). I asked why I should keep him home and her answer was that the tests were ALL day for 4 days because they were “field testing”. I’m glad we are leaving the public school system. HS is nothing but PARCC, pushing AP and AP testing. I’m done and this information just confirms that I made a really good choice.
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Meanwhile, in North Carolina today, it was reported that the GOP was offering free day care to families impacted by the teacher march on Raleigh. At least the NC school children will get a good lesson on cynicism today.
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How stupid do these politicians think we are?
While McQueen described ETS as a “different vendor,” the group actually owns Questar.
The New Jersey-based nonprofit organization purchased Minnesota-based Questar in 2017 for $127.5 million to serve as its for-profit arm. Questar CEO Stephen Lazer came from ETS, where he was senior vice president over student and teacher assessments.
Is this some kind of explanation?
State spokeswoman Sara Gast said Tuesday the testing groups “had no relationship at all” when the state Department of Education entered into its first contracts with ETS in 2015 and then with Questar to take over TNReady in 2016.
“ETS acquired Questar last year, but Questar has remained a separate legal entity, and we have two separate contracts and they are two separate companies,” Gast said.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2018/05/15/tnreadys-new-testing-company-also-owns-the-old-one/
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Here is Karen Bracken’s comment at the link. The whole picture is so much more outrageously funny than it first appeared.
QUESTAR is a member of IMS Global along with Pearson, PARCC, AIR/Smarter Balance. IMS Global is a GLOBAL data collection company and IMS Global is actually listed in ESSA. Sounds to me like TN is still taking orders from DC. Do you really think we are picking our own testing companies. So far they have all been connected behind the scenes. Wake up. Our kids are being used as human capital for the planned global economy. Our children will fill the needs of the corporate world not their own needs and dreams. How do you feel about our testing company being part of a GLOBAL DATA COLLECTION company???
Why does the TNDOE have a contract to share our children’s data with Oxford…YES……OXFORD in the UK. You better think long and hard before you send your kids back into this system in September.
Also, did you know ETS is the contractor for the federal government test, NAEP. How convenient is that? ETS is part of the cabal and TN is always in line free to hand over our kids and their private data. If you are at all interested, ETS is a tax exempt non profit charitable organization. If you take a look at the many, many, very large salaries they pay to their employees it appears as if the biggest charity is ETS. Instead of trying to shut down the US Dept. of Ed we need to shut down tax exempt non profits by removing all tax exemptions for these foundations. This tax code has been widely used and terribly abused. Lets see who the real charitable folks are when they are no longer getting huge tax breaks and the ability to pay out huge salaries.
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Btw, GRE is also ETS’ child….
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“ETS acquired Questar last year, but Questar has remained a separate legal entity, and we have two separate contracts and they are two separate companies,” Gast said.
“Those Hydra heads are completely separate entities” Gast said.
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“The Testing Hydra”
Every time you sever head
Another grows in place
The testing Hydra’s never dead
But simply changing face
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