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Here’s a list of problems that Pearson, the world’s largest education company, have encountered with its standardized testing business in the United States over the years. It was collected by the nonprofit National Center for Fair and Open Testing, known as FairTest.

1998 California – Test score delivery delayed

1999-2000 Arizona – 12,000 tests misgraded due to flawed answer key

2000 Florida – Test score delivery delayed resulting in $4 million fine

2000 Minnesota – Misgraded 45,739  graduation tests leads to lawsuit with $11 million settlement – judge found “years of quality control problems” and a “culture emphasizing profitability and cost-cutting”

2000 Washington – 204,000 writing WASL exams rescored

2002 Florida – Dozens of school districts received no state grades for their 2002 scores because of a “programming error” at the DOE. One Montessori school never received scores because NCS Pearson claimed not to have received the tests.

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2005 Michigan – Scores delayed and fines levied per contract

2005 Virginia  – Computerized test misgraded – five students awarded $5,000 scholarships

2005-2006 SAT college admissions test – 4400 tests wrongly scored; $3 million settlement after lawsuit (note FairTest was an expert witness for plaintiffs)

2007-2011 Mississippi – Subcontractor programs correct answer as incorrect resulting in erroneous results for almost four years during which time 126 students flunked the exam due to that wrongly scored item. Auditors criticized Pearson’s quality-control checks, and the firm offered $600,000 in scholarships as compensation

2008 South Carolina – “Scoring Error Delays School Report Cards”

2008-2009 Arkansas – First-graders forced to retake exam because real test used for practice

2009-2010 Wyoming – Pearson’s new computer adaptive PAWS flops; state declares company in “complete default of the contract”; $5.1 million fine accepted after negotiations but not pursued by state governor

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2010 Florida – Test score delivery delayed by more than a month – nearly $15 million in fines imposed and paid

2010 Minnesota – Results from online science tests taken by 180,000 students delayed due to scoring error

2011 Florida – Some writing exams delivered to districts without cover sheets, revealing subject students would be asked to write about

2011 Florida – New computerized algebra end-of-course exam delivery system crashes on first day of administration

2011 Oklahoma – “Data quality issues” cause “unacceptable” delay in score delivery; Pearson ultimately replaced by CTB/McGraw Hill

2011 Guam – Score release delayed because results based on flawed comparison data; government seeks reimbursement

2011 Illinois – 144 students in five Chicago schools wrongly received zeroes due to scoring error. The state sought nearly $1.7 million from Pearson, which could not explain how the errors occurred.

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2011 Iowa – State Ethics and Campaign Finance Disclosure Board opens investigation of Iowa Education Department director Jason Glass for participating in all-expenses-paid trip to Brazil sponsored by Pearson Foundation

2011 New York – Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenas financial records from Pearson Education and Pearson Foundation concerning their sponsorship of global junkets for dozens of state education leaders

2011 Oklahoma – State identifies 18 significant problems with Pearson’s tests leading to $8 million penalty settlement

2011 Wyoming – Board of Education replaces Pearson as state’s test vendor after widespread technical problems with online exam

2012 New York – “Pineapple and the Hare” nonsense test question removed from exams after bloggers demonstrate that it was previously administered in at least half a dozen other states

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2012 New York – More than two dozen additional errors found in New York State tests developed by Pearson

2012 Florida – After percentage of fourth-graders found “proficient” plunges from 81 percent  to 27 percent in one year, state Board of Education emergency meeting “fixes” scores on FCAT Writing Test by changing definition of proficiency

2012 Virginia – Error on computerized third- and sixth-grade Standards of Learning tests causes state to offer free retakes

2012 New York – Parents have their children boycott “field test” of new exam questions because of concerns about Pearson’s process

2012 Oklahoma – After major test delivery delays, state replaces Pearson as its testing contractor

2012 New York – More than 7,000 New York City elementary and middle school students wrongly blocked from graduation by inaccurate “preliminary scores” on Pearson tests

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2012 New York – State officials warn Pearson about potential fines if tests have more errors

2012 Mississippi – Pearson pays $623,000 for scoring error repeated over four years that blocked graduation for five students and wrongly lowered scores for 121 others

2012 Texas – Pearson computer failure blocks thousands of students from taking state-mandated exam by displaying error message at log-on

2013 New York – Passages from Pearson textbooks appear in Pearson-designed statewide test, giving unfair advantage to students who used those materials

2013 New York – Three Pearson test scoring mistakes block nearly 5,000 students from gifted-and-talented program eligibility

2013 Worldwide – Pearson VUE testing centers around the globe experience major technical problems,  leaving thousands unable to take scheduled exams or register for new ones

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2013 New York – Second error found in New York City gifted-and-talented test scoring makes 300 more students eligible for special programs

2013 England, Wales and Northern Ireland – General Certificate of Secondary Education exam in math leaves out questions and duplicates some others

2013 Texas – State auditor finds inadequate monitoring of Pearson’s contract: vendor determined costs of assessment changes without sufficient oversight and failed to disclose hiring nearly a dozen former state testing agency staff

2013 Virginia – 4,000 parents receive inaccurate test score cards due to Pearson error in converting scores to proficiency levels

2013 New York – New Pearson Common Core textbooks are “full of errors,” including in sample test items

2013 New York – Pearson fined $7.7 million by New York State for using its nonprofit foundation arm to steer business to the firm

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2014 National – Pearson notifies students who took the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) in 2011 that their exams had been misscored

2014 Florida – State education commissioner seeks penalties after schools in 26 counties suspend Pearson’s new computerized tests because server problems prevent students from logging on and freeze screens

2014 New York – Printing errors result in missing questions and blank pages in Pearson-designed statewide math assessment

2014  Texas – Pearson emails out two test questions to teachers days before the exam is administered

2014 Texas – STAAR test answer sheets shipped to Pearson are lost, requiring students to retake the exam in the middle of summer

2014 Virginia – Error in scoring Pearson’s SOL Civics & Economics test question results in 500 changed scores, including 224 students moving from failing to passing

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2014 Texas – Pearson goes after University of Texas, Austin education professor who testified that the company’s products do not measure what they claim to measure

2014 Colorado – Pearson test-scoring error delays release of Colorado Measures of Academic Success scores

2014 Minnesota – State expresses concern that Pearson computer testing technology is outmoded and cannot support new online exams

2014 New Mexico – American Institutes of Research claims “bid-rigging” in Common Core award to Pearson

2015 Colorado – Pearson’s glitches slow social studies and science tests

2015 New York – Quality of Pearson-designed questions on state exam challenged

2015 California – Pearson battles over award of state testing contract to rival firm

2015 Minnesota – Statewide testing suspended due to Pearson computerized administration system collapse

2015 Florida – State end-of-course testing suspended due to PearsonAccess log-in problems

2015 Virginia – State testing interrupted three times because of Pearson testing system problems

2015 Indiana – Cyber-attack on Pearson computerized exams raises security concerns

2015 New York – State ditches controversial test-maker

2015 Texas – Pearson loses bulk of state testing contract after repeated problems

2015 Minnesota – Pearson pays $5.7 million in fines and services for testing foul-ups

2016 New York – Missing and unlabeled pages in English exam cause confusion

2016 New Jersey – Statewide testing cancelled due to computer problems

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