Arizona Ditches Common Core Testing Consortium
Photo Credit: REUTERS / Joshua LottArizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced Friday that her state is pulling out of a multi-state consortium that is designing a national test that applies new Common Core education standards.
Arizona was an early governing member of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, bu Brewer’s office announced that effective June 8 the state would be disassociating itself.
PARCC is one of two major constortia that is trying to create a common test for states that have adopted Common Core national education standards. With Arizona’s withdrawal, 15 states and the District of Columbia are members, though only nine are firmly committed to using PARCC’s tests.
The decision to pull out does not affect Arizona’s current adherence to Common Core, whose implementation will continue as planned. In addition, the decision doesn’t necessarily mean Arizona will not ultimately use PARCC to supply its standardized test, as PARCC will be allowed to submit its tests for possible use.
The government’s statement says the state has no problems with PARCC, but rather must disassociate itself to avoid any conflict of interest as it evaluates different bids to provide standardized tests to more than 1 million Arizona students.
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