Re: Parade Intelligence Report

[aburke5054@aol.com]

Only five companies control the testing market?  Clearly we need a more 
differentiated market, like the one in public education, for example.

Aside from that, even including tutoring and test prep, which many 
parents pay out of pocket, this comes out to be a whopping 46 bucks per 
child.  That's about a half of a percent of public expenditures on K-12 
and about half of what we spend on video games.  If we didn't have 
tests, every kid could have a new used video game or a new pair of 
sneakers that looks almost like the big brand ones.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>
To: Arn-l@interversity.org
Sent: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 7:27 pm
Subject: [arn-l] Parade Intelligence Report

Under the title, "Making a Profit Off Kids," the "Intelligence
Report," a widely-read feature in Parade, the most popular Sunday
magazine supplement in America, reported on October 28, 2007:


"Over the last two years, 23 states across the country have added
more than 11.3 million reading and math tests to their school
curricula in order to keep up with the requirements of the federal No
Child Left Behind Law. Michigan alone has tacked on more than 1
million new tests; New York, more than 1.7 million. While experts are
debating whether increased testing helps kids learn more, most agree
that it does mean big bucks for the testing companies. The school
testing and testing services industry (which includes tutoring, test
prep courses and the tests themselves) is now an estimated $2.3
billion a year enterprise, with just five big companies controlling
90% of the statewide testing revenue."



George Sheridan

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