Recently I had an interview with an organization called Strategic Measurement and Evaluation, a
company that has been hired by the New York DOE to score and evaluate the
upcoming Core Standard math and reading tests that will be administered in the
New York City public schools in April.
These tests will be given grades 3 through 8 for the second time this year. Last year there was so much controversy about
the multiple choice questions on the reading tests that parents threatened to
sue Pearson (the publishing company that created the tests.) Pearson accepted a settlement out of court
and agreed to revise the tests for this year.
From
what I saw of the math multiple choice questions at the training I attended and
some of the values questions on the
reading part of the test, they will have problems this year too. Not only that, but they were asking for
certified teachers to work from four to eight hours, either during the day or
in the evening to score the tests and were offering to pay $20-$25 per hour for
that deadly assignment. As soon as I saw the samples of the questions
and the working conditions (in a room at a hotel near La Guardia Airport) I
vowed not to have anything to do with the program.
I have
filled part time and temporary positions since I retired as a New York City
English teacher twelve ago and I never got paid less than $30 an hour. Most tutoring and mentoring jobs paid $45-$65
per hour. Adjuncts make at least $75 an
hour teaching for SUNY or CUNY. Any
professional job, such as the one described above, that pays less than that
will only attract people who are desperate to earn extra money or who probably
have a full or part time teaching job.
That means they will come to this extra job already tired and stressed
out. They are bound to make mistakes
when they are beyond two hours of this monotonous assignment.
Does SME have any connection to Pearson? Their main offices are in Illinois. Pearson is a world-wide organization with
branches in several states. Why is SME
paying so little for such a difficult assignment? How much is SME getting paid from the city for this assignment?
Considering
the fact that schools and teachers are now being evaluated based on students’
achievement on these core standards rubrics, I think it’s disgraceful that the
tests will be graded by a company that hires teachers to work under these
conditions. Parents and other New York
City teachers and administrators should be made aware of this situation.
