Boycott Pearson. From KXAN:
. . . . KXAN News has uncovered that the state is spending more than $89 million on testing for the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, this year alone. That amount has nearly doubled in the last 10 years.
Every penny goes to a company called Pearson,which develops the test questions, prints and distributes test booklets and scores the exams before sending them back to 8,000 schools.
The state's five-year contract with Pearson, which covers the 2010 through 2015 school years, totals just over $468 million.
Based on figures provided by TEA, Texas taxpayers by 2015 will have paid Pearson nearly $1.2 billion for developing standardized tests and related materials dating back to the year 2000.
(See year-by-year breakdown below)The annual cost goes up each year. In 2015, standardized testing will set the state back nearly $100 million. . . .
Greetings,
ReplyDeleteThis is a staggering figure when placed into context. The report states ““KXAN News has uncovered that the state is spending more than $89 million on testing for the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, this year alone. That amount has nearly doubled in the last 10 years.”
As a parent of current Texas middle school student, this is mind-boggling as students, teachers, and parents are all still recovering from the questionable pass rate and continuous issues that plagued the previous TAKS test (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills). My son just took three sections of the new STAAR test and he informed me that there was so much confusion that even the teachers and administrative staff were uncertain of proper preparation and administration of the test. I pray that at these financial costs the true cost is not at the expense of the students and a decent assessment instrument.
reference:
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/05/texas-pays-pearson-468000000-for-5-year.html#comment-form
Virgil Adkins