The educational testing industrial complex

Learning to distinguish between motives of profit and the well being of children

I learned about the relationship between big business and education at the earlier part of my career. New York State had changed the format of the English Language Arts Regents exam and my supervisor asked me to attend a training session.

The session was created to introduce us to the new exam. The workshop was facilitated by a group of people who explained that they had all served on the committee to create the new test. One by one, they introduced themselves and explained their role in the educational system. One presenter was an English teacher in New York City and I believe that one was a college professor.

A gentleman walked to the front and introduced himself. He explained that he worked for Kaplan and had been involved in the creation of the Regents exam.

I wish that I could tell you what happened next, but my brain became stuck on this piece of information. Why was an employee from a test preparation company involved in the creation of the state exam? Wasn’t this a conflict of interest?

Just to be clear, the current DC school Rheeform is funded by the Gates Foundation in part. Melinda Gates sites on the Washington Post Corp. Board of Directors. The Washington Post Corp. owns Kaplan test preparation services. All crony capitalism all the time.