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NYS: Cancel Pearson's Contracts With the Schools

NYS: Cancel Pearson's Contracts With the Schools

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Started by Anonymous 13 years, 4 months ago
To New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman: The April 2013 testing season has brought the incompetence of Pearson Foundation once again into the public eye. It is time for New York State to sever ties with the Pearson Foundation. Among other things: - Pearson completely botched scoring of the NYC Gifted and Talented test, leading thousands of children and families to be told that they had not qualified for the program when in fact, they had. Pearson has publicly admitted its incompetence. - The State ELA test given to our children and written by Pearson was full of product placements, including NIKE, Mug Root Beer, Lego, IBM,the TV show "Teem Titans" and FIFA. This is taxpayer- paid advertising making its way into our childrens' exams -- exams which the schools are required to administer. Our children should not be a captive audience for commercials. - The State ELA exams included passages from other Pearson materials, such that students in districts which bought other Pearson materials had an unfair advantage over students in other districts. - The State ELA tests were also so long that, according to reports, a significant number of students could not finish them. This was in part due to the fact that Pearson embedded dozens of "field questions" in the exam, essentially using our children for market research. These problems, among others come on the heels of last year's ELA exams -- also written by Pearson -- in which several questions, concerning a talking pineapple, were so absurd that State Commissioner of Education John King had to ultimately remove them from the scored tests. Pearson has a history of such problems elsewhere as well. These problems not only waste our money by sharply increasing test costs while decreasing their usefulness. Problems like this waste our childrens' time and energy, and frustrate any educational purpose of such tests. It's time for New York State to end its relationship with this incompetent, costly, and completely irresponsible company.

Updates

May 17, 2013

just saw we hit 500 signatures on this. honestly blown away that so many people are just as fed up with these tests as i am.

Reached 500 supporters

May 14, 2013

May 6, 2013

this is getting way bigger than i thought it would and im honestly kind of blown away by how many people are fed up with these tests. it feels like we finally have some real momentum building against this mess.

April 24, 2013

just hit 100 signatures and im honestly amazed people are paying attention to this. seeing so many other parents who are just as frustrated with these tests means way more than i can say.

Reached 100 supporters

April 21, 2013

8 Comments

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Martha Davis
6 years ago Featured

I just had a bad experience trying to take the online CAPM exam. The system check in went well, but as soon as it was time to start my exam, Person's link went away and for whatever reason am having issues with contacting someone to assist me. When I tried to reach out the text link, it sends back replies that the link does not accept voice messages. I feel like my money and time spent preparing for the CAPM has been all for nothing. I can not imagine the PMI organization would associate itself with such a rip off company. I am very upset!! I am a single mother working jobs.....

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Eileen Silva
7 years ago Featured

Aweful experience, audio didnt work, and still, no apologies, just an openned case ZERO, on that area of the test, luckily i passed, but it is not fair. I called and they said, sorry, i see the case, thats it. it is disrespectful, on every occasion. tHEY DO NOT give a break for 5 hours on the TEXES, core subjects exam. it is inhumane.

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yanet bello
11 years ago Featured

it is not fair for our students to punish them this way and kills their confidence. Those testes are torture. These testes do not test any skills. Children should be given testes that test their skills and it should be created by their teachers who know what they tough and wants to assess the understanding of material tough. enough is enough. please stop messing up students future.

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yanet bello
11 years ago Featured

it is not fair for our students to punish them this way and kills their confidence. Those testes are torture. These testes do not test any skills. Children should be given testes that test their skills and it should be created by their teachers who know what they tough and wants to assess the understanding of material tough. enough is enough. please stop messing up students future.

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Joe Rivera
12 years ago Featured

The company is the worst creating Certification Exams. Poor labs, poor simulations. Avoid anytime.

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Sarah Turner
13 years ago Featured

My daughter came home crying after school yesterday because the test was way too long and had weird ads in it. Why are we paying a company that treats kids like guinea pigs for marketing data. Stop this madness now.

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kevin joseph kaercher
11 years ago

They are incompetent and lack the ability to handle such a delicate process.

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Anonymous
12 years ago

Awful experience with Pearson.

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