Lawsuit Alleges Appraisal Institute Has Given States Fraudulent Test Results For Years

[Zoe]

NAIFA lost a bunch of money fighting in court for independent fee appraisers.

 

[Zoe]

The real burning question....
Which of the AF's "squad" members are going to start a Go Fund me for the fired employee....

Guys, now's your opportunity to jump start your revolution....

I would donate most likely. I can't start it. I am old and weak. I need it to get further down the road on the lawsuit.

 

[Zoe]

The real burning question....
Which of the AF's "squad" members are going to start a Go Fund me for the fired employee....

Guys, now's your opportunity to jump start your revolution....

I worked with a few MAI's that ran AI down to me constantly. They could not do it to AI because they would have wound up like this lady. Or should I say these two ladies?

 

[Essexfenwick]

I would be cautious assuming any wrongdoing. The hanky-panky here appears to be mostly the fault of the entire appraisal system, more or less supposedly managed by TAF/AQB, a bunch of idiots. Yes, by law this and that. But writing a test that requires say 70% of all questions to be answered correctly to provide an acceptable rate of confidence is not easy. I mean, exactly 70%, regardless of the questions? Why 70%? I have taken some tough graduate math courses where the highest score by the brightest was below 70% and the passing score was maybe 35% - because the professors are looking for the one out of a million - and also want to show what high "standards" they have.

What makes sense, and is common practice in the US, is to use a curve for sloppily written tests: Just flunk the lowest 40-50% or whatever. In the US, this is called "standardized" scoring, but is better called "relative" scoring.

Why should states have different standards? Of course, they have different educational standards. New Mexico, Mississippi and Louisiana have the lowest standards for high school graduates, Massachusetts the highest.

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Now, as an example of fixed standards: Germany is or at least used to be a country where all Abitur (high school) graduates have to pass the same countrywide exam to graduate and go on to college. The Germans never grade on a curve. Their educators spend a lot of time designing a set of tests that assign a certain number of points to different questions.

Grok-3: "Each subject in the Abitur is assessed based on exams and coursework, with grades typically ranging from 0 to 15 points (where 15 is the best). These points are then converted into a final grade on a scale of 1.0 (excellent) to 4.0 (passing), with anything below 4.0 being a fail. The specific criteria for assigning points are determined by the state's educational authorities and are intended to reflect absolute performance standards rather than a relative ranking.

That said, some states or schools may apply moderation or statistical adjustments after the exams to ensure consistency across years or to account for unusually difficult tests. This isn’t a traditional bell curve where a set percentage of students must fail, but rather a calibration to maintain fairness and comparability. For example, if an exam is deemed exceptionally hard, the point thresholds for certain grades might be adjusted slightly, though this is not a universal practice and depends on the state’s regulations.

In short, the Abitur is primarily standards-based, not curved, but local practices can introduce some flexibility that might feel curve-like to students. If you’re curious about a specific state’s approach, let me know, and I can dig deeper!"

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Well, do you really expect the appraisers at TAF or the AI are competent to create such tests? Of course not and in any case no one is going to pay for that. They just decide to flunk a certain percentage with the lowest scores. That's easy-peasy.

So, I say, you really have to blame TAF, probably the AI as well, for this lackluster testing system for its inadequacies.

And this gal, if what I read in your post is correct, - she is most likely just out for revenge or an "idiot" or both, soaking up your sympathy. But, in the end, don't be so sure the AI won't be exonerated for this situation that really has to be laid.first and foremost at the feet of TAF.

As far as CS, riding on his motorcycle, I am sure he couldn't care less.

(One fix for this problem would be for the AI to just report the percentage correct, rather than a pass/fail.)

You could sue any large organization, business or government over that kind of nit-picking. You could probably sue most Americans regarding their tax return accuracy and not following the 5000 pages of laws regarding such.

Going nowhere

But if it succeeds … Trump should use it to tear apart NGOs and nonprofits on a nuclear scale and put the proceeds into the social security lockbox .

 

[CGinMN]

What does that have to do anything?

Run it through Claude if you’re having trouble.

 

[Elliott]

Blast from the past. Could this thing be like the other?

Appraisal Institute CEO fired following ‘secret’ board meeting

"Cindy Chance, the CEO of the Appraisal Institute, was terminated during what she described as a “secret board meeting” on Thursday night that she was excluded from."

Appraisal Institute CEO fired following ‘secret’ board meeting

Cindy Chance, the CEO of the Appraisal Institute, was terminated on Thursday night during what she described as a "secret board meeting" that she was excluded from.

finance.yahoo.com

.............

Curious minds wonder. "The cover up is always worse than the original crime."

 

[DWiley]

.
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Well, do you really expect the appraisers at TAF or the AI are competent to create such tests? Of course not and in any case no one is going to pay for that. They just decide to flunk a certain percentage with the lowest scores. That's easy-peasy.

Well, do you really expect the appraisers at TAF or the AI are competent to create such tests? Of course not and in any case no one is going to pay for that. They just decide to flunk a certain percentage with the lowest scores. That's easy-peasy.

I have served on exam committees at both AI and TAF. There is far more to developing the exams (and the passing scores) than most know.

Both engaged the assistance of professionals in the development of exam content outline, the item bank of questions, the exam content outline, and the calculation of the passing score. All work was done with the oversight of professional psychometricians and in accordance with recognized psychometric methods and techniques, and there is significant supporting documentation.

 

[Bobby Bucks]

Blast from the past. Could this thing be like the other?

Appraisal Institute CEO fired following ‘secret’ board meeting

"Cindy Chance, the CEO of the Appraisal Institute, was terminated during what she described as a “secret board meeting” on Thursday night that she was excluded from."

Appraisal Institute CEO fired following ‘secret’ board meeting

Cindy Chance, the CEO of the Appraisal Institute, was terminated on Thursday night during what she described as a "secret board meeting" that she was excluded from.

finance.yahoo.com

.............

Curious minds wonder. "The cover up is always worse than the original crime."

Whenever there is a secret gathering of portly, elitist, white appraisers stressing diversity, it usually means there is skullduggery being plotted and schemed....of course they are typically excluded from the witch hunts.

 

[alebrewer]

Both engaged the assistance of professionals in the development of exam content outline, the item bank of questions, the exam content outline, and the calculation of the passing score. All work was done with the oversight of professional psychometricians and in accordance with recognized psychometric methods and techniques, and there is significant supporting documentation.

I know you get hammered here - so I'll add some levity. This sounds like you lifted it directly from a marketing publication for AI Exam Development...

 

[DWiley]

I know you get hammered here - so I'll add some levity. This sounds like you lifted it directly from a marketing publication for AI Exam Development...

LOL. I just wrote what we actually did. No marketing material involved.

When I first got involved in the exam process I found it fascinating. Like most, I was blissfully unaware of the existence of psychometricians and psychometric methods. I was very interested in the math behind it all, and I ended up studying the topic quite a bit.

To this day, when I take an exam I cringe when I see poorly structured exam questions.