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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums8 Things You Should Know About Corporations that Make Huge Profits from Standardized Tests
http://www.alternet.org/education/corporations-profit-standardized-tests8 Things You Should Know About Corporations Like Pearson that Make Huge Profits from Standardized Tests
A few months ago, fourth-grader Joey Furlong was lying in a hospital bed, undergoing a pre-brain surgery screening, when a teacher walked in the room with a standardized test. Shocked, Joeys father, who was in the room, told the teacher to leave.
Joeys mother, Tami Furlong, later said, I would like to hope she would not have taken his arm that has an IV and oximeter on it and put a No. 2 pencil in it.
Joeys story serves as one example of just how absurdly enforced standardized testing has become. Since George W. Bushs No Child Left Behind Act was passed in 2002, testing in the United States has skyrocketed. Before NCLB, under Bill Clintons Improving Americas Schools Act, the federal government required students to take six tests total a reading and math test in elementary, middle and high school. Under NCLB, in order to receive federal funding, schools are required to make students take 14 tests total a reading and math test from grades 3-8 and once in high school, plus a science test in elementary, middle and high school. But some districts require even more tests.
Barack Obamas $500 million competitive grant program Race to the Top, enacted in 2009, chiefly inspired school districts to give more tests. Amidst the recession, state budgets were hit hard, and government officials were willing to do whatever they could to receive money. Now, at least 25 states mandate one formal assessment test in kindergarten. Race to the Tops 2011 Early Learning Challenge awarded schools that could prove their students' readiness to begin school meaning how well four-year-olds did on entry assessments.
KG
(28,748 posts)FarCenter
(19,429 posts)It was more like the 14 now required, although then it may have been a state or county requirement. You got back a report of where you stood in terms of percentile versus the national, state, and district performances.
reusrename
(1,716 posts)Neil Bush has pocketed millions and millions from testing paraphernalia which was made mandatory in Texas and Florida while his brothers were governors.
http://www.projectcensored.org/12-bush-profiteers-collect-billions-from-no-child-left-behind/
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-10-15/no-bush-left-behind
ananda
(28,779 posts).. it did not turn out well. Their scoring offices were hard to find and
difficult to access physically. The people in charge were flaking and
inconsistent in setting up times for scoring. And the actual scoring
process was confusing and difficult.
I scored tests in Houston for the school district, and it was no problem.
But with Pearson, well... let me just say that that company stinks from
top to bottom.