You know what I mean about accountability. That quality so many say is lacking in teachers in public schools?
I am learning lately that accountability is only for the little people, that the same standards are not in place for the big guys.
The testing scores that determine everything in Florida are very late. They are finally coming out this week sometime. The Palm Beach Post has a rather scathing article about the fact that this company is getting hundreds of millions from Florida in the future. (As a matter of fact a Maryland county has turned their whole school system over to the same company in exchange for several hundred million dollars. More on that below.)
From the Palm Beach Post:
FCAT errors don't faze state: Florida plans to give more work to a firm with a list of blundersFlorida hired a low-bidding company last summer to conduct its high-stakes standardized tests, disregarding the company's history of delays and mistakenly lowered student test scores. Facing the worst economy in years, education officials then drastically cut the amount of work required in the contract.
Now FCAT results are weeks late, snarling schools' end-of-year planning, leaving students in limbo and raising questions about the validity of the state's signature education overhaul.
But the problem isn't likely to end with this year's test. Despite frustration from parents, school officials and even legislators, state Education Commissioner Eric Smith said he plans to keep the $254 million, multiyear contract with London-based Pearson PLC, a contract that calls for Pearson to take on more responsibility for the state's testing in the coming years.
See...they are not being held accountable. Instead they are being awarded with more contracts. Same pattern we have seen through the years with government contracts with companies like Halliburton and Blackwater.
I looked up Pearson PLC because a previous article had referred to NCS Pearson. They appear to me
to be the same.Some legislators called for an investigation of the company.
Some legislators have called for an investigation, noting that Pearson has been involved in some of the biggest testing blunders in the last decade, including a 2006 incident in which about 4,400 students had their SAT scores mistakenly lowered.
The other options:
That leaves the state with another weapon: the threat of financial penalties. State officials can fine the company up to $25 million for late test results, according to the contract. The state has asked for $3 million so far. The penalties, while stiff, won't bankrupt Pearson. The international conglomerate, which owns the Financial Times newspaper and Penguin Group, a book publisher, made about $7.1 billion in net sales last year. Pearson Education, its largest division, earned about $5 billion in net sales, according to financial reports."
Too big to be accountable.
More about Pearson and testing. Other states
have had problems as well. Other states that had problems.
In the last decade, the Iowa City-based firm had trouble in Wyoming, Minnesota and Virginia, among other states, in getting out results when promised, scoring exams accurately and delivering usable tests. Pearson was the company responsible for the 2005 mishap with the SAT, when thousands of college-bound students got mistakenly low scores. In 2000, it also was late returning FCAT scores and was slapped it with a $4 million fine.
And also Wyoming.
This spring, the Wyoming Department of Education also ran into problems with its computer-based tests developed by Pearson. They were so severe the state declared the entire assessment program "seriously compromised" and said it would seek more than $9 million in damages.
What's really bothersome is that a Maryland county has turned its entire school system over to this company.
Montgomery County, MD, schools contracted to Pearson.Some may call Project North Star a pretty smart deal. I would use less flattering words to describe the deal into which Montgomery County Public Schools just entered with the world’s largest for-profit educational publishing company to nationally “brand” a newly created K-5 curriculum.
Under the arrangement, the school district will effectively turn its classrooms into Pearson Education Inc. showrooms, and sell to a private company the right to trade on the system’s high-achieving reputation, built over years with public funds, to enrich itself.
Other than that, there’s nothing wrong with the contract. Oh, wait. Yes, there is.
"Built over the years with public funds"....there is something so lacking in accountability. Now Pearson owns it.
Selling its name and reputation to a for-profit company has serious, unfortunate consequences. It allows business concerns to dictate the two-year curriculum development schedule; being the first, or one of the first, to market a curriculum aligned with new standards adopted by many states could be quite a lucrative business move. And it gives Pearson customers the right to come into MCPS classrooms to look at the product in action - effectively making staff and students salespeople. Lovely.
Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post has more about
the financial arrangements.Under the contract, Pearson will provide the county with up to $4.5 million in development funds -- one half of which will be “considered an advance against future royalties.” So the total is really something like $2.25 million to hire people to collaborate on a new curriculum to be aligned with the newly released Common Core standards for math and English language arts.
The school system, which has applied for a federal grant to obtain public money for this enterprise, would get a maximum 3 percent of royalties on domestic sales beyond that amount, my colleague Michael Birnbaum wrote in a Post news article.
A federal grant? Combining public with private again.
The FCAT scores are finally due out this week.
Teachers will be held accountable for the scores of the children.
No accountability for Pearson.
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