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Outrages

  

9486 in the collection  

    Harcourt Responds to Complaints by Politician


    CARSON CITY -- The president of a testing company that mistakenly reported 736 students failed a math test agreed Tuesday to reimburse parents who decided to send their children to summer school for remedial help.

    Dean Nafziger, president of Harcourt Education Measurement, agreed to make the payments after Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, complained about the mistakes made by his company.

    Nafziger agreed to "bear their costs." He said so far he knows of only one student who hired a tutor because he was told he had failed the math test.

    But Jack McLaughlin, state superintendent of public instruction, said that there are cases where parents paid money to send their children to summer school for help in passing the math test.

    Raggio also asked McLaughlin and Nafziger to check whether some of the students who were told they failed the test may have dropped out of school. Students must pass the math test to receive a high school diploma in Nevada.

    "That would be tragic situation," Raggio said. "We need an effort to reach students who might have dropped out because of the error. They certainly need to be reached."

    The costs Nafziger agreed to pay Tuesday are in addition to the $425,000 in penalties imposed on his company Monday by the Nevada State Board of Education.

    Nafziger apologized to the Committee on Education for the mistake and said safeguards have been implemented to prevent a reoccurrence. The company has been preparing and grading proficiency tests for Nevada only since January.

    Nafziger said his company is hiring more test writers and managers and increasing its test categories to include science and other subjects. The company discovered their math test error when checking items to include on a new test in July. Harcourt then reported its error to the state.

    Gary Walters, vice chairman of the Board of Education, said he has confidence that Harcourt now will do a good job.

    Ohanian Comment: Interesting, isn't it, that the Board of Education officer is quick to express confidence--not in teachers, not in students--but in the testing conglomerate.

    — Ed Vogel
    Test Company Agrees To Reimburse Parents for Remedial Help
    Las Vegas Review-Journal
    August 28, 2002
    http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2002/Aug-28-Wed-2002/news/19504407.html

    INDEX OF OUTRAGES

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