What's going on, Albuquerque?

Who Gets Paid for Mandatory School Testing

In a Journal article today, it states "The state is about to revamp mandatory testing for high school students" for the purpose of helping students "map out their high school education."

It went on to say...

"Deputy Education Secretary Catherine Cross Maple said the Education Department is asking the Legislature for $3 million to revamp the state's high school assessment system."

This effort is going to lead to more mandatory testing for high school students. Does anybody know what company is contracted for this testing? Neil Bush's (the president's brother's) company Ignite! Software has benefited in the past by selling tutorial software for the tests that are required by No Child Left Behind. Here's a recent article from The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which also calls on The Dept. of Education for an investigation.

I'd like to know what company or companies are being contracted in the state so that this can be brought up in the dialogue concerning that particular funding.

Tags: APS, Behind, Child, Left, Mandatory, No, Testing

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Laura on January 5, 2008 at 12:09pm

Huh. I coulda sworn I heard Bill Richardson on the campaign trail talking about the need to repeal No Child Left Behind.

That said, $3 million going to a private contractor to revamp a testing system? That seems pretty interesting, especially when you think about how else New Mexico's public schools might be able to use $3 million.

Thanks for drawing attention to this -- it'll be very interesting to watch for the RFP, which the story says will be coming out later this month.

Also, this reminded me of a report someone sent to me recently. It's from the Progressive States Network, and it has data from the 50 states concerning privatization of state agencies/contracts/etc. Very much worth checking out. You can read it on line here:

http://www.progressivestates.org/files/privatization/PrivatizationR...

Permalink Reply by bleve on January 9, 2008 at 10:36am

Its taken me a while to get back to this. That's a great resource Laura. The amount of control we give in this state to corporate prisons is quite alarming... highest percentage in the nation. Like the developers, private education and numerous other interests, they are funding both political parties in the state. I believe Richardson's campaigns have received over $50,000 from just one contractor since 2002. I'll post another discussion soon about this particular issue with links to resources.

Permalink Reply by Laura on January 5, 2008 at 12:50pm

Also, it's always a good idea to keep an eye on new organizations registering lobbyists in the state.

You can do that at the Secretary of State's website:

http://www.sos.state.nm.us/displayContent.asp?id=110

and here:

http://ethics.sos.state.nm.us/LOBBY/ORG.htm

Permalink Reply by Emily Redondo on October 21, 2008 at 3:03pm