Erik McCormick, director of assessment with the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (AK DEED) announced that Alaska will be leaving the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). Governor Parnell and Commissioner Hanley had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SBAC in April of 2013, but withheld announcement of signing the agreement until the legislature had ended the 2013 session in mid-April. The announcement comes days before the beginning of the 2014 legislative session.

The April 2013 announcement spurred controversy during most of the summer and fall of 2013. Many activists in education policy believed that the governor and the AK DEED had overstepped their legal authority in signing the consortium agreement. According to the Alaska state constitution, education authority lies with the legislature not the governor. Case law such as the Moore decision squarely affirmed that the final authority for education was with the legislature.

Unlike any prior consortia, SBAC’s governing board was more like an Agenda 21 regional governing structure. The legislature’s ability to determine policy would have been significantly eroded by continued membership. Federal overreach, along with sovereignty rights were frequently expressed by activists who opposed Alaska’s membership in the consortium.

Activists also expressed concerns because the senior adviser to SBAC is Obama’s campaign adviser, Linda Darling Hammond. Hammond is so radical that Senate Democrats blocked her nomination to the U.S. Department of Education in the early days of Barack Obama’s first term. Hammond is a frequent contributor to the United Nations committee on global education playing a dual role as a U.S. researcher on that committee and as an SBAC adviser. Hammond’s earlier project, CSCOPE was met with considerable controversy in Texas and was recently outlawed in that state.

Second amendment supporters also expressed concern about the consortia. SBAC is housed at the University of California where Janet Napolitano became system president in the late summer of 2013. Because SBAC had a data sharing agreement with the state and the federal government, many Alaskans expressed concern that the consortia was simply surrogate for the federal government to further encroach on Alaska’s privacy and rights.

Several legislators were poised to introduce legislation aimed at eliminating the state’s involvement in the consortia, through either education funding or through substantive legislative language.

Shane Vander Hart of the Truth in American Education website noted,

“Alaska took a great first step in pulling out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Now they must shine light on the back door approach to implementing the Common Core unbeknownst to their residents.”

AK DEED McCormick also stated that Alaska was contracting with Assessment & Achievement Institute, an organization with the University of Kansas for the construction of the tests for the Alaska State Standards. The state had already been working with another University of Kansas group, DLM Consortium, to create a new Alternate Assessment for students with severe cognitive disabilities.

Activists should not celebrate too soon. Alaska may face circumstances to those faced by Utah, Alabama, Maine, and Michigan when they left SBAC. In those cases, withdrawal from SBAC had to be approved by the SBAC’s governing board and U.S. Department of Education secretary Arne Duncan. In those states, the standards remained controversial because they are very similar to the common core.

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Dr. Barbara Haney is an economist, political activist, and social media consultant in Alaska. She has previously served as a program director and faculty member at University of Alaska, Eastern Illinois University, University of Notre Dame, and other colleges and research institutions. In addition to her university experience, Dr. Haney has served as an ABE educator and a home school educator. She has served as a district chairman, national delegate, and campaign volunteer in various Republican campaigns. Dr. Haney receives mail at [email protected]