Stories from a FCAT scorer

From the Tampa Bay Times, by Rebecca Catalanello

Todd Farley, a former FCAT scorer and trainer for Pearson and author of Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry, spoke to National Public Radio's StateImpact Florida yesterday about how writing scores were determined while he was there.

From his interview with reporter Sarah Gonzalez:

"There were innumerable instances when we were scoring, half way through the project you would go, we have a tremendous number of lower half scores and not enough upper half. So I would stand in front of a group and I would go, ‘hey all that stuff I’ve been telling you for two weeks, lets just forget that and let’s give more upper half scores.’ And all the scorers would moan and complain and I would think it was a scam and they would think it was a scam and then we would do it. Because every one of us was in there to get paid."

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/content/former-fcat-scorer-tells-moving-mark