Testing company: This is how we're going to milk more money from Missouri taxpayers

A few years ago, the Joplin R-8 School District, in an effort to game the system on the MAP tests, bought Acuity, a set of practice standardized tests from McGraw-Hill.

The cost was somewhere between $40,000 and $50,000 a year and Acuity was a miserable failure from the beginning.

Tests were given in math and communication arts eight times a year, seven times before MAP and once after it. With each test period taking at least two days, and the district at that point spreading out MAP tests over a three-week period, close to 20 percent of teachers' time was devoted to testing.

Unfortunately, it did not stop there. In their zeal for data, R-8 administrators, encouraged teachers to meet and to provide more practice tests, which McGraw-Hill was happy to supply for those who were not meeting expectations, and soon we were setting up our curriculum based on the Acuity tests.

Of course, that slavish devotion to teaching to the test did not raise test scores. 

That was probably good news, even though for some reason, it was never about Acuity, it was always about teachers who were not taking the time to use the data and change their classroom teaching methods to embrace it.

The bad news- we may be headed toward Common Core Standards, but that is not going to stop McGraw-Hill from making a mint through its Acuity program. The company issued the following news release:

CTB/McGraw-Hill, one of the nation's leading educational assessment partners, today announced the launch of more than 1,600 new digital Acuity® Instructional Resources built exclusively for the comprehensive Acuity Common Core K-12 assessment solution. Developed specifically to address the requirements of the Common Core State Standards, these highly interactive instructional resources enable teachers to provide targeted instructional content to each student based on his or her most critical areas of need.

Reflecting the full depth and rigor of the Common Core standards, Acuity's new instructional resources provide students with real-time feedback on their instructional progress, and educators with reports to inform additional instructional decisions. Assignable directly from Acuity assessment reports, educators can use valid and reliable data to select the most appropriate instructional resources to reinforce, remediate, or enrich skills learned in the classroom. Used either by individual students or as classroom activities, these instructional resources can be delivered on all common browsers as well as on iPad®. The new digital Acuity Instructional Resources make a smart addition to a district's instructional improvement toolbox.

"One of the greatest benefits of digital learning tools is that they can truly make students better learners, in part by providing teachers with an efficient way to identify and address the needs of each student individually and promptly," said Holly Bremerkamp, Acuity Product Manager at CTB/McGraw-Hill. "With the introduction of these new Acuity Instructional Resources, teachers will have the flexibility to assess and guide their students' progress toward mastering the Common Core standards, and the skills vital to success in college and careers."

The combination of Acuity's all new Common Core K-12 assessment item banks and instructional resources, created specifically for the Common Core standards, brings a breadth and variety of assessment and instructional tools to education while keeping learning both engaging and personalized for each student.

Acuity Instructional Resources are currently available for Grades K-12 in English Language Arts and Mathematics. To learn more, please visit www.ctb.com/acuity or view the demo video.

If your school is one that is not currently using Acuity, it is coming your way. The state of Missouri recently purchased McGraw-Hill's tests and practice tests.

The Common Core nightmare continues.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/28/5858350/ctbmcgraw-hills-launch-of-more.html#storylink=cpy