More than 4,000 Va. students assigned wrong testing results
By Michael Alison Chandler, Washington Post | http://bit.ly/17KO0Eu
August 13, 2013 :: Pearson, the world’s largest education and testing company, provided incorrect scorecards for more than 4,000 students in Virginia who took an alternative assessment last school year.
That mistake led to many parents receiving news this summer that their children had passed the test when they had failed it.
“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has created for students, parents, schools and school divisions as well as to our colleagues at the Virginia Department of Education,” Susan Aspey, a spokesman for Pearson, said in a written statement. “We understand the importance of accurate reporting and know that the school divisions are now working very hard to make internal adjustments to their scores before reporting them to parents and the state.”
Pearson issued a similar apology last spring for making mistakes in the scoring of admissions tests for gifted and talented programs in New York City public schools. Other scoring problems by Pearson in recent years caused delays in final test results in Florida and Minnesota.
Pearson and state education officials said the problem in Virginia was not in the scoring but in how the scores were converted into proficiency levels: fail, pass/proficient or pass/advanced.
The testing company provided miscalculated scorecards to school divisions this summer. Some school districts, including Alexandria’s, Arlington County’s and Prince William County’s, had already given parents the results before the error was flagged in late July.
Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, called the mistake “truly regrettable.” Virginia has a three-year, $110 million contract, which began July 2011, with Pearson to administer and score the state tests. Virginia education officials plan to meet with Pearson representatives later in the week to discuss the technical problems and whether the state might receive any financial compensation.
The botched scorecards were for the Virginia Alternative Assessment Program, given to students with serious cognitive disabilities who are unable to take regular Standards of Learning tests.
The portfolio-style tests review student work that is compiled throughout the school year. Usually, the portfolios are evaluated on the local level, Pyle said. But this year, because the state is moving to new standards, Pearson was given the job of judging and scoring them.
UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT – or - It’s called “tablet based instruction”
by smf for 4LAKidsNews
21 August 2013 :: Yesterday I went to a special briefing on the new iPads and Pearson Common Core System of Courses (collectively and contractually the LAUSD Common Core Technology Project or iPads for Everyone) – and it was very interesting, well done, etc.
We were shown the LAUSD CCTP iPads in their sturdy “child-and-drop resistant” cases and met the Pearson trainers who train teachers on the devices and curriculum.
We were shown the whistles+bells and gee-whizz interactivity and got to press buttons and interact. It was impressive!
And we got to play with the teacher’s editions – so gee whiz was even Gee-er and Whiz- ier ,,,filled with pedagogical hints and curricular wonderfulness.
Normally when someone uses the words “pedagogy” and “scaffolding” in the same sentence I run screaming from the room (if I haven’t already been asked to leave) …but yesterday I stayed!
Here’s the funny part:
 | If you’ve ever bought an Apple product you know it comes in a clean exquisite minimalist box with a minimum of instructions. A postcard size document with the location of the on/off switch, the connector and the volume control. Period. Everything else you need to know is either intuitive or embedded in the content. <<iPad and operating instructions |
| The Pearson Common Core System of Courses comes with the expected “Getting Started” booklet (16 pages) plus a shiny brochure with a get more help link, plus two forty-page slick shiny Full Color PROGRAM OVERVIEW GUIDES, one for Math and one for English Language Arts; plus two spiral-bound full color books of a couple of hundred pages each:
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Many trees, sacrificed, the content not put on the iPads; the total mass of the paper content easily four lines the mass of an iPad.
I think even Ashton Kutcher playing Steve Jobs in the movies would be upset.
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