Florida to hire $10-per-hour temporary workers to grade high-stakes exams.
Critics of Florida’s high-stakes FCAT exam are lashing out at the state for hiring thousands of $10-an-hour temporary workers to score tests that are so critical in determining school grades and student promotions. “Florida students and their parents need assurance that their tests are being scored fairly and competently by people actually qualified to grade them and by people who have actual educational experience,” said Senate Democratic Leader Les Miller, who has called on the state to investigate the hiring practice. The uproar comes in the wake of a Kelly Services ad announcing 300 part-time openings in Central Florida for “scoring evaluators.” Duties include “electronically scoring essay-style questions for grades K through 12 on standardized student achievement tests,” reports Linda Kleindienst. Those who apply get one week of training under the guidance of the state education department and CTB/McGraw Hill, which is under contract to grade the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests being given this month and next.
First Chancellor Klein says teaching to the test is “the best” and then U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret (no Dubya nickname available) Spellings says teaching to the test “is fine and dandy.” (I’ve heard her speak–she really does say things like “fine and dandy.”)
She made this comment to a group of publishers, many of whom I’m sure publish and sell and sell and sell tests. Now, on the other end of the economic stick the testing phenomenon is providing money to a group of Americans who, but for No Child Left Behind’s emphasis on testing and “accountablity” might themselves have been left behind.
6 Comments:
1 institutional memory
· Mar 18, 2006 at 1:29 am
Google “Bush McGraw” for more insight into our testing culture.
Scientifically based research? Hah. “The rich get richer” is more like it.
2 R. Skibins
· Mar 18, 2006 at 9:56 pm
It’s better than forcing us to do it at the end of march, which I thought was a violation of contract. Oh, I forgot. You guys think that an “assessment” is not a standardized test!
3 no_slappz
· Mar 18, 2006 at 9:57 pm
Better that teachers fill many days preparing kids for standardized tests than imitating Jay Bennish and filling their heads with nonsense.
4 nycparent
· Mar 20, 2006 at 10:27 am
Better outside test scorers than having teachers lose another 2 full days of actually teaching. Between PD, and vacations, and sick days, and test scoring, my child barely goes an entire week without a substitute. Surely test scoring isn’t rocket science and can be easily done by outside sources, provided the proper QA is in place. This sounds like a silly union argument to me.
5 JColletti
· Mar 20, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Dear nycparent,
This is not a silly union argument. I think you are missing the import of what it means when noneducators are hired to score high stakes tests that determine, for instance, graduation school designations and funding to public education. If anyone can score such a test then the test is probably not intended for such high stakes decisions. Multiple choice is one thing, but these tests are not multiple choice–they include essays and similar, if somewhat shorter written responses. The problems that ETS and New York State have had in scoring showcase the problem.
We do not advocate pulling teachers out of classrooms to score tests. In fact it’s the UFT that brought this issue to the public’s attention. The issue is the way tests tests tests are driving the system and how the system is accomodating itself to the culture of testing (and the money it brings in for test publishers) while refusing to focus on education and the proper role of tests.
I agree with you–it is disingenous at best for Chancellor Klein to trumpet his creation of math and literacy coaches to help teachers and then use those teachers to score tests for weeks on end.
If we’re teaching to the test then educators are being forced to work in a closed system.
6 institutional memory
· Mar 20, 2006 at 9:16 pm
Let me try and understand this pretzel logic: It’s good to teach to the test all year round, and it’s acceptable to administer tests for days on end. OK, fine. But then it’s also OK for high-stakes tests to be scored by whatever “talent” the labor pool can provide? Who, exactly, are we talking about? College students? Get real. The reliability of standardized tests is dicey enough already, without adding amateur scorers to the mix.