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State Senator George Latimer upper left, met with executives of Pearson–the international education publisher, creator of the 2013,2014, 2015 Common Core Assessment Tests Tuesday .

WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. WPCNR EXCLUSIVE BY JOHN F. BAILEY. May 16, 2015:

The new New York Assessment Tests calculated to measure New York students’ grasp of Common Core standards were never, according to the company that created the tests, meant to evaluate teacher performance, according to State Senator George Latimer of the 37^th Senate District after a face-to-face meeting with Pearson executives  last Tuesday.

WPCNR believes the Senator is the first lawmaker in the capital to bring the creator of the tests in to talk about their tests.

State Senator George Latimer told WPCNR this week at the Council of Neighborhood Associations, and  as White Plains Week, the city news roundup show reported exclusively in its Friday night telecast,  that he met with key executives from Pearson, the international educational publisher  Tuesday afternoon in Albany about the content and intent of the last two years of assessment tests Pearson created for New York State.

Vic Mallison, Senator Latimer’s Chief of Staff, told WPCNR in a telephone call Wednesday identified the executives were Kevin Quinn of Whiteman, Osterman & Hanna; Alfred Binford, Managing  Director Assessment and Direct Delivery of Pearson and JC Considine, Director of Public Affairs, Northeast Region for Pearson.

Mallison confirmed what Mr. Latimer told WPCNR Tuesday that Pearson executives told them that the assessments they created the last two years and administered statewide “were never intended for use in evaluating  teachers (effectiveness.)”

Mallison also told WPCNR  Pearson emphasized their Common Core Assessment tests were created specifically to the terms of their contract with the New York State Education Department and were to measure the skills of students only in applying Common Core standards.

Asked about what the State Education Department contract with Pearson specifications are, Mallison said “We are in the process of obtaining that contract.”

The tests  have just completed the third generation of Pearson-prepared Common Core Assessment Examinations  throughout New York State this month.

The first two years of the administration of the tests have shocked previously highly regarded school districts such as White Plains and other districts in Westchester County like Scarsdale, Chappaqua, New Rochelle and Port Chester and hundreds more across the state by the low passing rates their students have achieved.

Teachers in White Plains, and School Superintendents statewide have rallied against Governor Andrew Cuomo’s just passed education legislation requiring half of teacher evaluations should be based on their students’ Common Core assessment test performances.

It seems, Senator Latimer said, that the assessment tests were never intended by the State Education Department to evaluate teachers.