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Wednesday, April 6, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Don’t be fooled by scammers
Oregon recruiting
teachers to score tests
BEND (AP) — Oregon’s
new standardized test is a
harder test for students, and
it’s also more difficult for
evaluators to score.
The Smarter Balanced
test measures how students
are performing under the
Common Core standards and
includes more open-ended
questions that can’t be scored
by a computer.
With that need for humans,
the Oregon Department of
Education (ODE) is accept-
ing applications from teach-
ers for a pilot program to
train them to score Smarter
Balanced tests outside their
regular teaching duties.
The department will host
a training session in Salem
next month. Teachers will
score tests from students
across the country, not just
in Oregon, for $20 an hour,
The Bend Bulletin newspaper
reported.
More than 40 states have
adopted Common Core,
and 14 states are using the
Smarter Balanced test.
When the state intro-
duced Smarter Balanced, the
question of whether teach-
ers would be involved in the
scoring came up often, said
Bryan Toller, a math assess-
ment specialist with ODE. It
was something other states
in the Smarter Balanced con-
sortium asked about, too, he
said.
“The idea is Smarter
Balanced is the consortium,
the whole group of states. In
my opinion, it’s important to
keep the states engaged and
involved and keep the teach-
ers engaged and involved,”
Toller said.
The department wants to
recruit 40 teachers for the
pilot program.
Last year, Oregon used
a company called Data
Recognition Corp. to score
Smarter Balanced. This year
it switched to Measurement
Incorporated. In the pilot
program, teachers will be
supervised by Measurement
Incorporated to ensure their
scoring is accurate.
On
its
website,
Measurement Incorporated
lists openings for temporary
workers to score tests, work-
ing remotely or at its scoring
centers across the country.
Job requirements include a
bachelor’s degree and, for
those working remotely,
access to a computer with
high-speed internet. The
jobs are not limited to
teachers.
“I think it’s good to get
teachers’ eyes on this test
and the results, have them
involved with the test,” said
Don Stearns, president of the
Bend Education Association,
the local teachers union.
“Sometimes the lens of the
teacher might be different
than someone whose job is to
write and score the test.”
Don’t get fooled by scam-
mers pretending to be from
the FBI, Internal Revenue
Service (IRS), U.S. Marshals
Service, or any other federal
agency.
Law enforcement officials
are aware of a recent wave of
scam attempts. Callers iden-
tify themselves as a federal
officer and typically instruct
people to wire “settlement”
money to avoid arrest.
These phone calls are
fraudulent. Federal agencies
do not call or email individu-
als, threatening them to per-
suade them to send money.
There are many versions
of this government imperson-
ation scam, but they are all
variations of the same tactic.
The type of scam has been
around for years and targets
people across the nation. In
2016 reports have streamed
in to law enforcement about
attempts to scam residents
throughout the country.
If you have been targeted
by government-impersonat-
ing scammers, the sooner you
report it, the better are the
chances that law enforcement
will be successful in their
investigation. Here’s how to
report specific scam attempts:
• FBI impersonation:
Scams impersonating the
FBI have been around for
years and continue today—
sometimes citing current FBI
Director James Comey or
a local field office Special
Agent in Charge. The FBI first
warned the public in 2008 that
“the fraudulent emails give
the appearance of legitimacy
due to the usage of pictures of
the FBI Director, seal, letter-
head, and/or banners.”
Call your local FBI
office Portland Division:
503-224-4181.
• IRS impersonation:
Last month, the Treasury
Inspector General for Tax
Administration (TIGTA)
warned that criminals con-
tinue to impersonate IRS
agents, resulting in reports of
more than 1 million fraudulent
contacts since October 2013
and more than 5,500 victims
who have collectively lost
approximately $29 million.
Fill out the “IRS
Impersonation scam” form
on TIGTA’s website, www.
treasury.gov/tigta/contact_
report_scam.shtml.
Contact Jacqueline
Siegel at 503-265-3525 or
Jacqueline.Siegel@tigta.treas.
gov.
• U.S. Marshals imper-
sonation and jury service
scam: The United States
Courts warned that scam-
mers are now more sophisti-
cated, using official-sounding
call centers and citing des-
ignated court hearing times.
The U.S. Marshals Service
has also received complaints
of specific officer names or
badge numbers being cited by
scammers.
Call your local U.S.
Marshals Service office in
Oregon: 503-326-2209.
In addition, all types of
fraud schemes and scams
can always be reported to the
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Internet Crime Complaint
Center (IC3) at www.ic3.gov.
The following information is
helpful to report:
• Header information from
email messages;
• Identifiers for the per-
petrator (e.g., name, web-
site, bank account, email
addresses);
• Details on how, why, and
when you believe you were
defrauded;
• Actual and attempted loss
amounts;
• Details about the govern-
ment impersonation; and
• Other relevant informa-
tion you believe is necessary
to support your complaint.
Filing a complaint through
IC3’s website allows ana-
lysts from the FBI to identify
leads and patterns from the
hundreds of complaints that
are received daily. The sheer
volume of complaints allows
that information to come into
view among disparate pieces,
which can lead to stronger
cases and help zero in on the
major sources of criminal
activity. The IC3 then refers
the complaints, along with
their analyses, to the relevant
law enforcement agency for
follow-up.
Learn about other com-
mon scams by visiting
www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/
frauds-from-a-to-z.
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