Ready to Grade?

Measurement, Inc. has been hired by the State of Tennessee to design new standardized tests to replace TCAP. The new test is to be aligned to Tennessee’s new standards and will include constructed-response questions in addition to multiple choice. This means students will write answers or demonstrate work as part of the test. The idea is to demonstrate understanding of a subject, rather than simply guessing on a multiple choice test. Typically, grading a constructed response test is costly, because evaluators have to read and consider the answers and then rate them based on a rubric. Fortunately for Tennessee taxpayers, Measurement, Inc. has found a way to keep these costs low.

Here’s an ad from Measurement seeking Evaluators/Readers for tests:

Thank you for your interest in employment with Measurement Incorporated. We are a diverse company engaged in educational research, test development, and the scoring of tests administered throughout the world. Our company has grown to be the largest of its kind by providing consistent and reliable results to our clients. We are able to do so through the efforts of a professional and flexible staff, and we welcome your interest in becoming a member. Measurement Incorporated Reader/Evaluator Position Recruiting for projects starting in March of 2015 for both day and evening shift at the Ypsilanti Scoring Center. If you qualify as a reader/evaluator, you will be eligible to work on a number of our projects. Many projects require readers to score essays for content, organization, grammatical convention, and/or the student’s ability to communicate and to respond to a specific directive. Other projects involve scoring test items in reading, math, science, social studies, or other subject areas. The tests you will score come from many different states and from students at all grade levels, elementary through college, depending on the project.

LOCATION Measurement Incorporated Ypsilanti Scoring Center 1057 Emerick Ypsilanti, MI 48198 (734) 544-7686

REQUIREMENTS Bachelor’s degree in any field Ability to perform adequately on a placement assessment Completion of a successful interview Access to a home computer with high speed internet in a secure work area for telecommuters

HOURS Readers are hired on a temporary basis by project but are expected to work five days per week, Monday through Friday. Hours vary by shift. Attendance during training (usually the first few days of a project) is mandatory. PAY The starting pay is $10.70 per hour. After successful completion of three major scoring projects (or a minimum of 450 hours), readers who meet the minimum standards of production, accuracy and attendance will receive an increase to $11.45 per hour.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE To apply, please go to http://www.measurementinc.com/Employment/ and select the Reader/Evaluator position. Select Ypsilanti as your location and click on the “Apply Online” tab. Qualified applicants will be contacted to complete an online placement assessment, schedule an interview, and provide proof of degree. If invited to work on a scoring project, proof of employment eligibility in order to complete a federal I-9 from will be required within three days of employment.

Apparently, scorers at the Nashville scoring center can earn starting pay of $11.20 an hour.

 

Certainly, quality scorers for TNReady can be found for $10.70-$11.20 an hour via ads posted on Craigslist. I’m sure parents in the state are happy to know this may be the pool of scorers determining their child’s test score. And teachers, whose evaluations are based on growth estimates from these tests, are also sure to be encouraged by the validity of results obtained in this fashion. So, if you have a Bachelor’s degree and want to makeĀ around $11 an hour on a temporary, contract basis by all means, get in touch with the developers of Tennessee’s new standardized tests. For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

5 thoughts on “Ready to Grade?

  1. Measurement Inc WILL NOT create new assessment questions based on our new standards. They contracted with AIR/Smarter Balance and AIR leased the assessment questions they created for Utah under a 3 year contract for TN, AZ, FL. The leased assessments for TN will cost $2.3 million PER YEAR. Now what does this mean? It means that TN will continue to have Common Core aligned standards. It also means that either the state has a new set of standards already written and the feedback process is smoke and mirrors or the new standards regardless of feedback will be constructed around the CC aligned assessments AIR leased for TN from Utah. I say YES to both. Anyone interested in the contract let me know. Governor Haslam is not on our side. And he is spending a lot of money to make it appear as if he is. But too many indicators show this is the Delphi Technique at it’s finest. The outcome is already pre-determined. AIR is not an assessment organization. They are behavioral research company and they have received about $113 million from Bill Gates. The assessments they create with Smarter Balance (Linda Darling-Hammond) are based in values, beliefs and attitudes. They are also one of 2 consortiums funding by the federal government to create CC assessments. Still think Haslam is a good guy. HE IS NOT. We are being lied to again. Call your legislator and ask them to cosponsor a REAL repeal bill (HB1348/SB1193) The bills from Forgety and Gresham are HASLAM bills not real repeal bills.

  2. Thank you for sharing the interesting information, Karen. Testing is getting to seem more deceptive every day. I did not bother to give feedback on the standards because I figured that TN would have the same Common Core Standards, but with a different name. It bothers me to think that anybody with a degree is “invited” to score a “project.” As we all know, there are huge differences in quality between schools. Would you rather have someone from Harvard or Podunk U. score your kid’s paper? Or, would you like to have someone who majored in technology and had the bare minimum of English requirements grade your kid’s English essay? The pay is low, so it’s unlikely that the scorers are going to knock themselves out and do a thoughtful, focused job. Heck no! They’re going to churn through the tests as fast as they possibly can. Testing like this is definitely not about helping teachers or students. It’s about making money for politicians and businessmen.

  3. Susan thank you for you insight. However I do not agree with you. This type of testing is going to help our students. They will actually have to think about the content, and not just guess at an answer. Yes the grading system might seem a little faulty, but there is not going to be one perfect solution to any of this. We are going to have to deal with some sort of testing for the long hall. I think testing the students, and giving them a chance to explain their answers is a great way to test our students.

  4. Pingback: Tennessee Education Report | Back to the Future

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