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Mississippi Fires Testing Firm After Exams Wrongly Scored

The Mississippi Department of Education is firing a testing company, saying scoring errors raise questions about the graduation status of nearly 1,000 students statewide. Photo courtesy Flickr/USAG Humphreys

The Mississippi Department of Education is firing a testing company, saying scoring errors raise questions about the graduation status of nearly 1,000 students statewide. Photo courtesy Flickr/USAG Humphreys

Saturday, June 17, 2017

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Department of Education is firing a testing company, saying scoring errors raise questions about the graduation status of nearly 1,000 students statewide.

The state Board of Education revoked a contract with NCS Pearson in closed session Friday, after the Pearson PLC unit told officials it used the wrong table to score U.S. history exams for students on track to graduate this spring.

Associate Superintendent Paula Vanderford says it's too soon to know how many students are affected, or what the state will do about problems.

Pearson had a contract worth $24 million over the next six years to provide tests for history, high school biology, 5th grade science and 8th grade science. The board hired Minnesota-based Questar Assessment to administer the tests for one year for $2.2 million.

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