WASHINGTON POST: A New Jersey student’s tweet about a question on new Common Core tests was deleted after it was flagged by a testing company, spurring a national debate about how to balance children’s privacy with test security in the age of social media…
Many parents and Common Core critics accused Pearson, the publisher of the new exams, of spying on the nation’s children. But for Pearson and other major test publishers — including ACT and SAT, which administer college entrance exams — watching public conversations on the Web has become a fundamental part of combating cheating and ensuring fairness…
It used to be that all students across a state took a paper-and-pencil test on the same day or days. Now children are taking the same Common Core tests in multiple states during a period lasting longer than a month. That has created a more intense test security problem for K-12 standardized exams: If a student from New Jersey reveals questions via Twitter — or even just the name of a poem that appears on the exam to test reading comprehension — it could give an advantage to students in New Mexico who are still preparing to take the test… (more)
