what happens when a test company gets it wrong

[Don Shepherd]

(10-12-2014 03:24 AM)patrice Wrote:  Here in France, even if things evolve, they are a little different.
Schools are mainly government (Ministère de l'Education)
On the day by day basis, teachers are free to build their own lessons and tests, the books are mainly for help, books are not automatically the lessons.
For national tests (such as Baccalauréat), they are made by government employees.

I see a few differences with US:
- All the tests/exams are made public after the start of the exam.
- Since France is spread all other the earth (Europe, Latin America, Pacific ...), there are different set of questions for different places for the same exam.
- Students can get back its corrected answers after the exam.
- The tradition is "open" questions for exams: In the exam, the student get only the questions, not the candidate answers.

Thanks Patrice, that is interesting.

In the US, there are public schools and private schools. Public schools are administered by each of the 50 states. Each state has an approved curriculum that all public school teachers must follow. All public school teachers must be licensed by the state. In my state (Kentucky), the license you earn defines what grade levels you can teach and what subjects you may teach, but sometimes teachers are allowed to teach outside their area of expertise.

Private school teachers do not have to be licensed by the state, and these teachers are free to choose whatever curriculum they want (with approval of the school headmaster or principal, of course). Teachers in private schools generally earn less money than public school teachers.

Standardized tests are created, sold, and administered by private testing companies. These tests are never released publicly nor are they ever returned to the student afterwards. These companies make huge amounts of money from these tests. A significant part of the school year is used to prepare students for taking these tests, and most teachers think this is not the best use of the students time in school.