Who scores the standardized tests in WA?

[Ken]

Damifino. Google is no help or I can’t for the right query.

Here is the info on PA testing by min wage scorers:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/07/952045/-A-5th-grader-says-No-to-NCLB-

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[redblack]

until you posted the question, i would have thought that teachers would do the scoring.

now that i think about it, though, this is probably someone’s idea of a legitimate business, or a way to funnel taxpayer money to private industry.

maybe neal bush does the scoring.

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[redblack]

here we go. from the WASL FAQ:

7. Who scores the WASL?

Hundreds of people score the WASL, including a large group of Washington teachers. All scorers are monitored closely by Pearson Educational Measurement, the state’s testing contractor. WASL scorers who are not Washington educators must have, at a minimum, a four-year college degree. All scorers – both Washington teachers and Pearson personnel – are monitored daily to ensure their scores meet criteria of accuracy and consistency set by Washington educators. Scorers who are unable to score according to these criteria are dismissed.

http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Frequently_about/?page=2

pearson appears to be a company out of cedar rapids, IA, and it looks like they do this type of contracting nationally.

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[Ken]

Pearson is mentioned.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-farley/in-defense-of-the-standar_b_802715.html

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[Ken]

http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/500pound.htm

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[redblack]

thanks for the distraction on a lazy tuesday morning, ken. not sure if this is your intent, but this kind of sums up the argument against teachers’ merit pay based on standardized testing:

To reiterate, teachers and ex-teachers made bad standardized test scorers because they actually gave a damn about the students, while my scoring projects were usually better served by people who cared a little less. Ironically, that means if test scores do end up being used to evaluate the jobs being done by American teachers, those people who “cared a little less” will end up assessing the jobs being done by those classroom teachers who really are invested in American education.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-farley/teacher-merit-pay_b_800119.html

all of this guy’s commentary on his experience in the standardized testing industry are pretty informative and tragically funny.

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[Ken]

Sadly, the sarcasm impaired quote the same part of the article to support the idea of merit pay = test score.

another humorous take on applying the theories of NCLB to the banking industry:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/07/953476/-Notice-to-All-Banker-Types-from-a-Teacher

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[redblack]

these articles shed a completely different light on the “entitled socialist fatcat wisonsin teachers” debate, too.

instead of having unionized teachers with teaching certificates who can handle teaching to difficult or outside-the-box students, we could have corporate teachers who teach to corporate tests churning out platoons of low- and mid-level executives who have the built-in skills and spiffy, conformist, can-do attitudes to best serve the business community.

sheer genius! idiocracy, here we come.

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[CMP]

I had the opportunity to grade WASL exams after I graduated college in Kansas. Sadly, I could find nothing else to do and my temp agency thought this would be a great opportunity. I can’t remember what it paid, but it was probably in the range of $11-$14/hour. I may have been bumped up more since I was promoted to a supervisor rather quickly because I apparently rocked at scoring. Regardless, it was good money at the time considering that minimum wage was about $5.35/hour.

Having been raised on the Eastside, I felt rather sad scoring the exams, wondering what school that kid went to that just scored a 1 for the written portion. I could spot a good or bad essay a mile away, from 4th grade up to 10th. Even the math exam was obvious. The work was easy, but I also cared a lot about how those scores would affect schools down the road with funding.

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[redblack]

the link above to pearson is outdated, and applied to WASL. the new scoring contractor is data recognition corporation.

WASL was replaced last year with the measurement of student progress (MSP) for grades 3-8, and the high school proficiency exam (HSPE). then there’s the washington alternate assessment system (WAAS) for special needs students.

apparently those tests are written by bright education testing services, inc. but the state is moving to online testing this spring, to be administered by computerized assessments & learning.

the state OSPI doesn’t make this information easy to find.

[edit: these guys are slippery! educational testing service (ETS) just acquired CAL in january. ETS appears to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, but they also seem to be gunning for global domination.]

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[Ken]

Note DRC is the company referenced in the first link of this thread.

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[Author]

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