Companies Cash In on Testing Trend

By Jessica L. Sandham

If 10th graders at New Bedford High School don't perform well on the Massachusetts graduation exam they are set to take next month, it won't be because they didn't have a chance to prepare.

The school is offering no fewer than 12 sections of a course devoted to reviewing for the state test. Administrators sent "contracts" home to parents, asking them to help prepare students. And to top it all off, the school is shelling out roughly $30,000 to give all sophomores access to TestU.

TestU is an Internet-based program that offers students individualized preparation for the state tests they will have to pass in order to graduate. It is one of a growing number of test-preparation services and materials that for-profit companies are offering around the country in an effort to cash in on the trend toward high-stakes testing. Schools and districts, eager to raise their test scores, are proving...