Mich. NCS is hiring 150 to 300 scorers per site. That means they have had to hire and train 3,000 to 4,000 scorers nationally. They opened more sites this year than last, which reduced the pressure of finding great numbers of qualified scorers in any particular city, according to Gary Mainor, president of assessments and testing for NCS Pearson. The company chooses scoring sites based on several factors, not the least of which is demographics. The scoring site in Jacksonville drew a mix of military retirees and students from the nearby University of North Florida.
Experts see problems ahead.
In the future, scoring will be done by permanent trained scorers via computer. Forget the sites and the need to find a core of qualified readers in a given city. Technology opens up the possibility of full-time readers working at home. But that future is not yet here, due to security questions. Mainor of NCS Pearson said there are simpler ways to ease the strain.