The Libyan Dictatorship Partially Owns the Company Scoring Your Kids' Standardized Tests

[ensho]

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12464


Last week the New York Times ran a stunning piece about the investments made by the Libyan dictatorship's sovereign wealth fund. According to the article, the fund owns a 3.27 percent stake (valued at $453 million) in Pearson, publishers of the Economist, the Financial Times, and Penguin Books, making it the company's third largest shareholder.

What the Times does not mention is that Pearson is also one of the biggest standardized testing companies in the U.S., touting themselves on their website as "the largest commercial processor of student assessments." They score statewide tests for 30 states, as well as the SATs and ACTs. In fact, Pearson's North American education division is responsible for almost half the company's profits.

Investing in Pearson was a shrewd move by the managers of Libya's sovereign wealth fund, given the growth of the educational publishing and assessment industries. In 2001, Pearson's CEO at the time, Peter Jovanovich, told a gathering of Wall Street investors that the No Child Left Behind Act "almost reads like our business plan" (Education Week, 2/21/01). "As envisioned by the company," Education Week reported, "students will use Pearson textbooks and take tests produced and scored by the company. Teachers and administrators will track student achievement on Pearson school software. And parents will check on their children's progress on a school Web site developed by Pearson." At the time, one investment analyst called Pearson "the 800-pound gorilla" in the education market.

-snip-

Pearson has achieved this growth despite repeated instances of mistakes in their test scoring business. In just the past year alone the company was forced to pay fines of $5.1 million to Wyoming and $15 million to Florida after problems administering and scoring their state exams. A Wyoming Legislative Service Office report stated, "As a result of the problems experienced during its last PAWS administration, many policy makers and state officials have lost complete confidence in the vendor ." However, the oligopolistic control over the testing market by four big firms (ETS, CTB/McGraw Hill, Riverside and Pearson - which acquired another big player, Harcourt, in 2007) leaves states with few other options.

-snip-

I just thought students, teachers, and parents might want to know what kinds of companies are scoring their tests as standardized testing season approaches ...

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you should read the snips

there are no loopholes in the many ways they have of screwing us and bringing us to our knees

[Octafish]

1. ...The No Child Left Behind Act 'almost reads like our business plan.'

Exactly. Didn't Muammar study econ in The City?

Thank you, ensho. Must-read information, yours.

[RandomThoughts]

2. Speak for yourself.

I am not on my knees, and the crap that is happening is going to get corrected one way or another.

And the more that is required, the more that will be extracted.


Rain, wind, storms of night.
fire and ground fuel the fight.
bring the power, of that which is right.
Not what is said, but what is light.


Blinded by the Light by Manfred Mann's Earth Band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg8cDmi7-U8

[Pacifist Patriot]

3. I have one loophole.

And please do not think this comes from any disrespect for teachers, it's a personal choice that works best for our family.

We homeschool.

[Maat]

6. +1 (n/t)

[sabrina 1]

4. This needs to be repeated:

"the No Child Left Behind Act "almost reads like our business plan"

That's because it was written by businessmen, friends of the Bushes, with no input from educators.

The war on educators is because THEY are the ones who recognize the total disaster this program is and anyone who interferes with business is now an enemy of the state.

When the Bush SOE called teachers unions unions 'terrorists', at least at that time, they had to apologize.

To Big Business who were selling our educational system to the highest bidders across the globe (Qadaffi was not the only foreign investor) those who were pointing out that this was NOT an educational program, probably were terrorists.

Now, they are far more blatant and calling teachers' unions 'terrorists' is perfectly acceptable.

It's up to the American people now, both parties are clearly involved in this.

Someone asked could we start calling it 'Fascism' now? What SHOULD we call a system of government that has been completely taken over by Big Business?

[Distant Observer]

5. What is the Point? That Libya's sovereign fund makes conservative investments

The striking feature of the Libya Fund is that it is more cautious (and more socially conscious) that similar funds in their region.

I lived in parts of Africa for 10 years, and the critique of Gadaffi is that he is dictatorial and "inscrutable" to the West, NOT that he has squandered or stolen the wealth of his country. All evidence is that he has not. Libya's sovereign wealth is intact, and invested for the most part in reasonable ventures -- with the exception of projects aimed at alleviating poverty in other parts of Africa.