Last week’s Pearson testing screw-up in New York City achieved the seemingly impossible: It brought all of that city’s education factions together. But the company may have inadvertently done parents a favor – it highlighted how many policies for gifted students just aren’t that smart. I take a look at that in a new column at TIME:
When news broke late last week that behemoth education company Pearson had bungled the scoring of standardized tests used for admissions to gifted education programs in New York City, it united Gotham’s quarrelling education community — everyone was outraged. Parents, teachers, and city officials all had good reason to be, as the scoring errors would have denied admission to 2,700 students who qualified. But the incident also highlighted the arbitrary nature of how we decide which students are so superior academically that they are essentially funneled into an elite group of schools with a specialized, advanced curriculum.
Feeling smart? Then click here to read the entire column.
“I can’t believe Pearson would make such an error.”
–Said no one ever.