POLITICO EDUCATION By Seth Zweifler With help from Caitlin Emma, Allie Grasgreen, Nirvi Shah and Stephanie Simon NEXT STEPS FOR TESTING CONSORTIA: For all of the furor about the Common Core tests, one development has gone largely unnoticed: The federal funds that have sustained both the PARCC and Smarter Balanced consortia are running out. Smarter Balanceds budget [1.usa.gov/1waLNNW] shows its $175 million Race to the Top grant will carry it through the end of September. PARCC aims to stretch its funding through the fall of 2015 [1.usa.gov/1q3I4UU ]. But both consortia expect to stay in business for many years to come. They will develop assessments and tools for teachers; set cut scores and monitor student performance; and serve as a conduit for collaboration among states. So how will they stay in business? - Smarter Balanced plans to start charging member states an as-yet-undetermined fee. The consortium is also building an affiliation with UCLAs National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing, which will provPARCC spokesman David Connerty-Marin states will pay a relatively low consortium fee to support ongoing state engagement, consortium governance and research support for ongoing innovation, in addition to what they pay on a per-test basis for the administration, scoring, reporting and ongoing item development. - The testing consortia had better ensure sustainability , says Chad Aldeman, an associate partner at Bellwether Education. And theyd better deliver a high-quality, reasonably-priced product, he said, because there is now lots of competition in the Common Core testing market. I dont envision a federal bailout for either of these two groups... if they are unable to keep paying customers happy, Aldeman said. He notes as well the irony that the federal funding is winding down even as angry rhetoric about federal overreach ramps up. It would be naive to think that this will solve anything in terms of optics or politics, Aldeman said, but he cant help but hope: The rhetoric should dial down over time as the federal government dials back its involvement.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 15:50:03 +0000
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