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Printing Errors Invalidate U.S. Reading Scores on International Test

By Sean Cavanagh

Reading scores for the United States on an international assessment of student skills have been invalidated because of major errors in the printing of the test, in what a top federal education official called an “embarrassment” for government officials and the private contractor responsible for administering the exam.

The results of the reading section of the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, were ruined when printing errors in the test booklets directed students to the wrong pages for information related to specific questions.

Mark S. Schneider, the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, the arm of the U.S. Department of Education that oversees U.S. participation in the exam, said today that his agency bore some responsibility for not catching the printing problem before the tests were given to students in fall 2006.

But he also said the primary duty for making sure the tests were printed correctly belonged to the contractor the Education Department hired to administer the test, RTI International, of Research Triangle Park, N.C. A spokesman for the contractor said the company accepted full responsibility for the mishap.

You can find the rest of the article at here.

— Sean Cavanagh
Education Week
2007-11-28
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/11/28/13pisa.h27.html?print=1

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