TESTING THE GIANT: The dancing funky monkey may have laughed along with John Oliver, but publishing company Pearson has taken the comedian seriously.
Earlier this week, John Oliver exposed the absurd lengths that schools are taking to prepare kids for tests, which include cheesy mascots, music videos and instructions for dealing with vomiting students. Many of his jabs were leveled at Pearson, for controlling a significant portion—up to 60%, according to Forbes—of the US testing market. On May 8, Alfred G. Binford, managing director of assessment and direct delivery at Pearson, wrote a reply to Oliver, defending the necessity of standardized tests to assess students’ learning, and addressing particular incidents of test failure and spying allegations from this spring.
