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Company responsible for delay in FCAT scores has history of problems
Florida has a $250 million contract with Pearson. A new rollout of a new computer-based testing system is at stake here. Not to mention the transcendental Obama/Duncan Faith in data-driven everything.
By Leslie Postal
The testing company responsible for the delayed release of this year's FCAT scores has a history of problems — in Florida and across the country.
Now, Florida education leaders fear their planned rollout of a new computer-based testing system is in jeopardy because the company, Pearson, is not prepared.
Education Commissioner Eric Smith criticized Pearson in a recent letter for using an "untested" system for computer-based tests that the state plans to use in high schools next year.
The lack of a "proven" system created "unacceptable" problems for schools that tried out the new tests this spring, Smith said.
"The problems experienced by schools have created a lack of confidence in Pearson, our program, and computer-based testing in general. The product seems to be so new and untested that even Pearson staff cannot provide clear and reliable instructions for successful implementation," Smith wrote in his June 4 letter.
The letter that detailed the bungling of Florida's foray into computer-based exams also criticized Pearson for failing to get scores from the 2010 FCAT out on time.
"This has been a frustrating and disappointing year for Florida as we implemented our assessment contract with Pearson" he said, because the company could not "reliably perform the tasks" required.
Four days after he sent the letter, Smith publicly blasted the company for its failure to get 2010 FCAT scores released when promised and said he would seek "significant financial penalties." The company has had trouble meshing student information files — created before testing begins — with actual scores
The problems in Florida are just the latest for one of the nation's biggest testing companies.
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.
Pearson's $254 million contract with Florida requires it to manage and score the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, develop a computer-based version of some FCAT exams – most are pencil-and-paper tests -- and help create new end-of-course exams for some high school classes.
This spring, the state had some high school students who had failed FCAT retake the exams on computer, and it also had teenagers field test its new algebra end-of-course exam.
By fall, it plans to have make all the FCAT "retake" exams and the algebra test – which becomes a graduation requirement – taken on computer. And as part of its contract with Pearson, it plans to phase in other computer-based, end-of-course exams in coming years.
But the first efforts proved anything but smooth.
In Orange County, where students at 10 high schools took the algebra exam last month, there were "technical problems with the administrators getting kicked off the program," said Lee Baldwin, the district administrator who oversees testing.
"We weren't happy with the response from Pearson. They were putting the problem to us," Baldwin said. "It was very frustrating."
There were also numerous problems with the FCAT retake math and reading exams – so many that the state allowed districts to go back and test affected students with a traditional pencil-and-paper exams.
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.
Pearson's computer-based system, according to Wyoming documents, kept freezing up, booting students off or taking "extended, protracted" time to load questions.
"How can students take a test seriously when they are unsure if it will even work?" one Wyoming principal wrote the state department.
Pearson is one of four big testing companies and all have had problems, said Bob Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing, which opposes much of how standardized tests are used in public education.
"It appears that Pearson is the worst of the lot. They have had more problems and more significant problems," Schaeffer said.
The federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires states to test many of their students, means companies are administering and scoring lots of tests every spring. The companies seem to put in low bids that "promise the sky and can't deliver," he added.
Pearson had Florida's FCAT contract back in 2000. When it was late delivering scores, Gov. Charlie Crist, then the state's education commissioner, told the company its contract would not be renewed. But Pearson won the contract back in 2001, with Crist saying the company had the lowest bid and the best "technical" qualifications.
Another company, CTB/McGraw-Hill, won a subsequent contract, but last year when Florida took new bids, Pearson won again because it had the lowest bid and the best "technical proposal," the education department said.
But now Smith said the company has not met its obligations. In his letter, Smith asked Douglas Kubach, Pearson's president, to explain by June 23 how the company would deliver a "proven" testing system. The company has not yet responded, the education department said.
Pearson did not respond to questions Wednesday about Florida's computer-based tests, but a spokesman said Tuesday that the company was sorry for the problems and took responsibility for the delays in releasing this year's FCAT scores.
Dave Weber of the Sentinel staff contributed to this story
— Leslie Postal
Orlando Sentinel
2010-06-09
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/os-fcat-test-company-problems-06-09-120100609,0,4407916.story
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