Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, reports that the NYC Department of Education plans to award $6 million to testing giant Pearson, despite the pandemic and looming budget cuts.
She notes:
Of that six million dollars, $1.7 million is for a one -year extension of Pearson’s controversial assessment to test four-year-old children for their “giftedness” – a standardized exam which many experts say has little reliability or validity, and is highly correlated with race and class.
She reviews the long history of failure associated with Pearson tests.
Evidently, Pearson’s lobbyists are better that its tests.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great closing line.
Once again, NY chooses Pear$on over Persons.
So, who’s getting the graft on this one?
The extension of the Pearson gifted contract was pulled off the PEP agenda for tonight.
Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
http://www.classizematters.org
Leonie@classsizematters.org
Follow me at @leoniehaimson
Oh, for god’s sake. Diane has recently mentioned John Oliver’s takedown of charter schools; he did the same for Pearson a few years ago–available on YouTube and hightly recommended.
John Oliver— “Pearson: If you’ve never heard of them, then congratulations. But, just mention their name to a parent or teacher in a state they operate in, and you’ll see what happens because Pearson are the educational equivalent of Time Warner Cable, either you’ve never had an interaction with them and don’t care, or they’ve ruined your f___ing life.”
Most tests at this age are a crock. If you value self control as a marker of potential for living well and fully, give the kids a verion of the marshmallow test…
But wait, you cannot do that in a booklet or other money-making format.
Try testing with a set of drums. Watch this five-year old.
https://digg.com/2020/drummer-boy-surprises-band
Putting $6 million into testing is a poor decision when the city is facing severe budgetary constraints. It would make far more sense to apply the money to instruction. Teaching and learning are far more important than useless standardized testing.
and there simply is zero logic for using “standardized” tests in this moment of noon-standard living — the very concept of having a standard for national comparison has flown out the window
Let’s not forget Michael Winerip’s NY Times expose of Pearson’s illegal and unethical business practices (redundant).
Free Trips Raise Issues for Officials in Education By Michael Winerip Oct. 9, 2011
Since 2008, the Pearson Foundation, the nonprofit arm of one of the nation’s largest educational publishers, has financed free international trips — some have called them junkets — for education commissioners whose states do business with the company. When the state commissioners are asked about these trips — to Rio de Janeiro; London; Singapore; and Helsinki, Finland — they emphasize the time they spend with educators from around the world to get ideas for improving American public schools.
Rarely do they mention that they also meet with top executives of the Pearson company.
The foundation’s officials say the free trips are solely educational and have no business purpose. On the foundation’s tax forms for the last two years, the line for listing “payments of travel or entertainment expenses for any federal, state or local public officials” has been left blank.
That may be a problem. Experts in tax law say that Pearson appears to be using its foundation to push its business interests, which would be a violation of the federal tax code.
Winerip’s report goes on…
After this slimy history, NYC Department of Education awarded Pearson what proved to be a $38 million, five-year contract to provide testing aligned with the Common Core from 2012 through 2016. Horrible test development and useless test results ensued.
Pear$on = slime. Invalid testing. Crappy online products. They just sold their horrible, failing textbook division to an equity firm in a fire sale.
There are so many more important things that $6 million could buy that would actually HELP schools right now.
Graft to the MAX! So sick and shameful.
AND also …
Institutional RACISM! Think about this…really.
I find this fascinating, as the fact of the matter is that, according to the June 15, 2020 Crain’s Chicago Business, “Last year, Nexus Capital Management, a Los Angeles-based private-equity firm, bought Pearson’s educational publishing business, including the Scott Foresman brand, & renamed it Savvas.” (Scott Foresman was a huge educational publishing company: remember the “Dick & Jane” books we all had to read in the 50s & early 60s? They–along w/most other ed. publishing companies, were bought out by…
Pear$on. So now they’re bought out by a “private equity firm?”
Soooo….what’s up with that?
We need to investigate this Savvas. “Nexus Capital Management, a private equity firm.”
Is that where NYC’s $6 million is really going–to a private equity firm that bought & is peddling (recycling) the worst, most inane products ever?
BTW–the other day this blog announced that one of the big universities (an Ivy, I think) is no longer taking SAT scores. Well, the University of Illinois (Chicago & Springfield campuses, but not their flagship Urbana-Champaign campus {?}–no reason given in **The Chicago Tribune * article, Sunday, June 14th) is dropping both the ACT & the SAT until at least 2021, due to covid-19.
Link to “Dick & Jane” article RE: Pearson/Savvas–
http://www.newsbreak.com/illinois/glenview/news/0PIfpaeG/dick-and-jane