BOO Standardized Testing!

Grassroots Mom had posted a blog, A 5th Grader says No to NCLB, talking and providing evidence of how standardized testing is being graded here in America. Her 11-year-old son first came up to her wanting to make a movie about high stakes NCLB testing, in Pennsylvania called the PSSA. Specifically, wanting to document how test was hurting his education and that of his schoolmates. This got Grassroots Mom to do some research about the upcoming PSSA testing and the No Child Left Behind Law that G. W. Bush had passed when he was in office, which effects every child enrolled in public schooling. In her blog she provides links to other blogs that explain how the PSSA test are being graded and I have to say that the evidence is a bit disturbing for our future generations. Her researched had brought her to the discovery of DRC, Data Recognition Corp, which is the company that is getting paid to print and grade the test these kids take every year in Pennsylvania. The contracts between the state and DRC are sickening with a $200 million contract in 2009. Soon she comes across an article of someone who is blowing the whistle on the multimillion-dollar essay scoring business. DiMaggio, whistle blower, wrote a book about how he graded the standardized testing and how things were being operated at these grading centers. Very disturbing article! Grassroots Mom’s blog is not bashing standardized testing, but actually is unraveling how standardized testing is being graded and paid for. If the graders of these standardized testing have to meet a certain grade curve just to get paid then how is this benefiting the children taking these types of test? I applaud Grassroots Mom for her curiosity and dedication to wanting to know the inside scoop of standardized testing. The Never Ending Game calls for the abolishing of standardized testing and the money that would have been given to DRC be put back into the school and used appropriately.