"And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?"

Well, I'd like to say that I've got a nose for news, but since Illinois politics and graft go together like peanut butter and jelly, I suppose the following just isn't much of a revelation.

I looked into who "owns" ICTS (the outfit that does the rather expensive standardized testing that's required of anyone seeking certification in Illinois, and about which I have harped before). As it turns out, ICTS was created by Pearson Education (which is owned by Pearson PLC - a London-based publishing company worth almost $10 billion), as a result of legislation passed in Illinois that required standardized testing of those seeking certification. A few details can be found at the ICTS website. When exactly that legislation was passed and the ICTS established, isn't clear from the website. But no matter - for now it's enough to know the state of Illinois passed a law that led to a commercial agreement with a large international publishing company that takes money directly from teachers' pockets. Am I too cynical, or does that just beg for a little more Googling?

Unfortunately, it took just a few clicks to discover that not only does the state of Illinois have contracts with Pearson Education to the tune of $138M to develop and administer standardized tests in Illinois, but that our State Superintendent of Education, Dr. Christopher Koch, has flown to China, Brazil and Finland courtesy of the Pearson Foundation, which is a not-for-profit arm of Pearson and therefore unrelated to Pearson's business interests (*nudge*nudge*wink*wink*). Sadly such trips aren't exactly uncommon among state education officials whose states have contracts with Pearson. A NYT article by Michael Winerip linked here covers the issue.

A followup article by Winerip, linked here and which also mentions Dr. Koch, starts with a story about Lu Young, the Supertendent of Schools in a county near Lexington, KY, who took a Pearson Foundation-sponsored trip to Australia. Two months after that, in spite of receiving a lower bid from McGraw/Hill for the state testing services, a state committee (that included Ms. Young), awarded the contract to Pearson Education. The article also says that the Pearson Foundation paid for the trips through the Council of Chief State School Officers, of which Dr. Koch is a member, and that the foundation lists $100,000 in Pearson contributions to the council in its most recent tax documents.

To make matters worse, it doesn't really seem that Dr. Koch is listing all of the favors he receives from the foundation on his state ethics forms, citing only the cost of the flight to China ($4271 for business class).

So all in all, it took me very little time to find out that big business and ethically-questionable Illinois policy-making are involved in the expensive process of testing teachers for certification in the state of Illinois.

It's a sad statement that I'm not at all surprised.

"I'm not a coward, I've just never been tested..."

I got up early this morning to take the Illinois Basic Skills Test. It's a standardized test for all prospective teachers, not unlike the SAT. There are 4 sections: reading comprehension, language arts, mathematics and writing. The first couple of sections require a lot of reading and then a few questions of varying degrees of obscurity about the reading. This is a VERY painful process for me since I'm what you might call a "deliberate" reader. I take my time.

Having survived these sections of the test, the determinism of the math section was like a breath of fresh air. I crushed that section and went on to the essay where, I'm sorry to report to the geriatrics of the world, I made a brilliant, well-articulated case for annual driver testing for people over 70.

Overall, I feel I did well. But who doesn't? I'll know in a month. The thing that worries me is that if I didn't pass for some reason, there's nothing I can study or work on that would make me any better next time.

We'll see...

I would also like to note that there were, literally, thousands of people there getting tested. The lady in line ahead of me was assigned seat #2742. Even if I assume that there were no more seats than that, the implication is that the state collected over $70,000 in registration processing fees ALONE for this single testing site, on this single day. I'd REALLY like to know where all that money goes.

Damn the torpedoes!

Well, I'm doing it. I've officially applied for admission to Cohort 12 in the Alternative Certification program at Benedictine University. This is the short, 8-week summer course I mentioned before.

So far, John Zigmond who runs the Alt Cert program at BU has been engaging, responsive, and supportive. I've talked to him a lot over the last year and he makes me feel very comfortable with my choice.

It's an odd feeling, letting go of a life that's been good by just about any measure and heading off into the unknown. But I bear in mind that my reasons for doing it are sound and the path that I choose is absolutely the right one, in spite of the risks.

Apropos to my situation, a quote from a great movie:

"I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'."

- Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption