Fwd: [oaklandteachers] Fwd: [arn-l] Test Giant ETS Fails UK Exam

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

  From: Jack Gerson <jackrgerson@gmail.com>

  Date: Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:34:23 PM US/Eastern

  To: "oaklandteachers@lists.riseup.net" <oaklandteachers@lists.riseup.net>

  Subject: [oaklandteachers] Fwd: [arn-l] Test Giant ETS Fails UK Exam

  Reply-To: oaklandteachers@lists.riseup.net

  ETS--the biggest name in American standardized testing--has just royally
  botched a huge testing job in the UK. It's become quite a scandal--now
  Parliament is investigating. Here in OUSD, messes like this occur almost
  every year--remember the Action Learning Systems math testing debacle of
  2006-7?

  Jack

  Begin forwarded message:

  From: Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>

  Date: July 21, 2008 6:03:12 AM PDT

  To: arn-l@interversity.org, ARN State <ARN-state@yahoogroups.com>, 
  arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com

  Subject: Re: [arn-l] Test Giant ETS Fails UK Exam

  Reply-To: arn-l@interversity.org

  Michelle in Nevada (and the NYC tabloids) picked up on what is a huge story
  in the United Kingdom. The failure of the Educational Testing Service to mark
  primary and secondary school exams in an accurate and timely manner is a
  national scandal, which has led to a formal investigation by the British
  Parliament.  FairTest has been quoted in many of these stories putting ETS's
  problems in an international context -- see for example The Sunday Times (of
  London) article labeling the situation "shambolic" at

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article4364314.ece

  As background information for the journalists who are contacted us, FairTest
  compiled a list of ETS test scoring and administration highlights (or is it
  "lowlights"?):

  - ETS had to pay prospective teachers more than $11 million U.S. to settle a
  lawsuit about systematic mistakes in scoring its PRAXIS licensing exams which
  gave false failing scores to more than than 4,000 educators. Here's a link to
  a summary of that issue:

  http://www.fairtest.org/ets-pays-11-1-million-settle-teacher-test-lawsuit

  - Also, ETS recently lost the contract to deliver the Graduate Management
  Admissions Test (GMAT) due to repeated administrative and scoring mistakes .

  http://www.fairtest.org/ets-loses-gmat-contract

  - ETS has also encountered significant difficulties in launching new
  international versions of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)
  and Graduate Record Exam (GRE)

  http://www.fairtest.org/new-gre-cancellation-reveals-ets-flaws

  A cross-cutting pattern is that ETS submits low bids to win new testing
  contracts but then lacks the technical competence to deliver on its promises.

  Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director

  FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing

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