Over 4,700 New York City students are now eligible for giften programs in the city’s public schools after Pearson, the company which writes and scores the tests, admitted it had made scoring mistakes, according to The New York Times. As a result, the city is witholding $500,000 from Pearson’s contract.
In a statement, Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott said, “Pearson has an established record in this field and we depend on its professionalism and deep capacity to deliver for the public. But in this case, they let our children and families down. I have told the company’s officials in no uncertain terms that I expect this will never happen again.”
There are more students who qualified for gifted seats than there are available seats in the program — which was the case even before the error.