Pearson: The BP of Corporate Testing

When Pearson's CEO, Peter Jovanovich, had a look at Bush's NCLB plan early in 2001, he quipped: "This almost reads like our business plan." 


Actually, it was McGraw-Hill's business plan, but now with a new Administration, Pearson is in the driver's seat, even though how it got there is a subject of an emerging investigation in Florida.  


Now they are expressing grave concern and a willingness to pay for damage caused by the spill testing screw-up.  After all, the State needs these scores so they can tell how many economically-disadvantaged children will be repeating grades next year.  From the Palm Beach Post News:

Palm Beach County School District administrators will help school officials directly mail FCAT scores to more than 80,000 students' homes as soon as the results are released by the Florida Department of Education, the district said late today .

"We want to take the burden off the schools and get the test scores out as quickly and efficiently as possible," Marc Baron, chief of performance accountability, said in a statement.

The district said NCS Pearson, the state contractor responsible for the weeks-long delay in releasing the results, has agreed to pay the cost of the mailings in Palm Beach County and statewide.

The results should by out by June 28, according to a promise that Pearson President Doug Kubach made Tuesday at a State Board of Education meeting in Orlando. The state last summer awarded Pearson a four-year, $254 million contract to administer and score the test.