A "not for profit" company messes up the MAP scores used to decide which students need to enroll in CCSD's First Grade Academies, causing hours of extra labor by Charleston County School District staff to straighten out records.
The Post and Courier reports what happened, except for one very pertinent detail: the "not for profit" shall remain nameless! Newsless courier, indeed.
My theory is that the company, which does get paid, of course, is still employed by the district in several other aspects. Therefore, it would be too embarrassing to name it for fear that some Board of Trustees member might query, "Why do we still pay that company to do anything for us?"
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
I don't think the company remained nameless; but I can see that the article might have left some people confused:
"The inaccurate scores were on the Measures of Academic Progress for Primary Grades, a test used by 2,390 school districts nationally, said Jean Fleming, director of marketing for Northwest Evaluation Association, which developed the MAP assessment."
I'm about 99.99% sure that the NWEA is the not-for-profit that screwed up the assessments. My kids have taken MAP tests for years, and when you get the scores, the NWEA logo is in the corner.
As any good reporter should know, the reader has to be informed in order to understand the content. Most readers are not familiar with the subtleties of the education industry. If NWEA is where the problem began, there should have been a more direct reference to that in the article. The reporter should have specifically named the person/organization responsible for this error.
If it was important enough for a headline, it is reasonable to what to know where the buck stops. Of course, the buck should stop with the superintendent. With all the importance being placed on the literacy academies, it doesn't sound reasonable to just play down this kind of error. Accountability (and credibility) continues to be a problem for CCSD's leadership. That's a prescription for poor leadership.
So, how much did this mistake cost?
Post a Comment