From here:
http://www.citypages.com/2011-02-23/news/inside-the-multimillion-dollar-essay-scoring-business/#
I especially liked the former supervisor- the scores were a bell curve no matter what, and even great essays would get 2s if they were not on topic.
Proof again the system is messed up, as is.
I worked for one of the companies in the article.
The whole scoring system is arbitrary. There is nothing objective in the scoring system.
It is easy to shift the "line" between the different scores and get the desired results. The whole thing is a joke and a giant waste of taxpayer money.
I am sure this is at least as accurate as the grades 7 through 12 questionaires about sex.