Spellings Calls Bad Testing Boys to Office

From the AP story in WaPo:

Last month, the College Board revealed a scoring error by Pearson Educational Measurement had resulted in more than 4,000 high school students receiving incorrectly low scores on the SAT exam they took in October. Pearson said the problem may have been caused by excessive moisture on answer sheets due to wet weather.

That error focused wider attention on the testing industry. A recent report by Thomas Toch of the Washington-based group Education Sector argued that a shortage of testing experts and pressure on the companies to return scores to the states quickly could compromise accuracy.

Simon said additional meetings with the industry are planned, and will include state officials.

Attendees were officials from testing companies including Pearson, Harcout Assessment and McGraw-Hill Assessment and Reporting, along with industry groups, the College Board and the Educational Testing Service.

At the end of the meeting, everyone got hugs and candy.