BUBBLE THIS!

Today's New York Times front and center where it belongs. The question isn't about the reliability of the tests, the question is why does testing dominate education? The reporters are getting warmer but they still haven't figured out the real story. Now that poor Johnny might not get into the college of his choice because of the incompetency and greed of testing companies and their cronies in government and business, perhaps this story will finally break wide open. Things are definitely looking up.

I wonder if Arenson and Henriques would be interested in writing another front page story about why Kaplan Inc. is sitting on Spellings' higher ed panel, objectively trying to figure out what's in the best interests of high school students and America's global competitiveness. They're sure to scoop the Post on this one since the Washington Post owns Kaplan. Don't look for any solid journalism there on education matters.

Company's Errors on SAT Scores Raise New Qualms About Testing

By KAREN W. ARENSONand DIANA B. HENRIQUES
Published: March 10, 2006
The scoring errors disclosed this week on thousands of the College Board's SAT tests were made by a company that is one of the largest players in the exploding standardized testing business, handling millions of tests each year.

The mistakes, which the company, Pearson Educational Measurement, acknowledged yesterday, raised fresh questions about the reliability of the kinds of high-stakes tests that increasingly dominate education at all levels. Neither Pearson, which handles state testing across the country, nor the College Board detected the scoring problems until two students came forward with complaints.