Assessment

Georgia Drops Out of PARCC Test Consortium

By Catherine Gewertz — July 22, 2013 1 min read
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Georgia has withdrawn from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, one of the two state groups designing tests for the common standards.

In an announcement today, Schools Superintendent John Barge and Gov. Nathan Deal said that Georgia will develop its own tests.

“Creating the tests in Georgia will ensure that the state maintains control over its academic standards and student testing, whereas a common assessment would have prevented [the state department of education] from being able to adjust and rewrite Georgia’s standards when educators indicate revisions are needed to best serve students,” the statement said.

The two leaders said Georgia will also “seek opportunities to collaborate with other states,” but did not specify what that means.

They singled out the cost of PARCC tests as a factor in their decision. PARCC announced today that its summative math and English/language arts test will cost $29.50.

Georgia is one of the lower-spending states in the PARCC consortium. Figures issued in 2010, when the consortium applied for federal funding to design the tests, show that Georgia was spending $10.70 per student for the math and literacy tests ($5.35 for each test).

Districts’ technological capacity to administer the online assessments was also a factor in the decision.

With today’s development, the assessment consortium map now looks like this:

Common Standards and Assessment Consortia Membership infographic by lindajurkowitz.

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog.