Remember all the hubbub when California announced a plan to dump most of its existing state testing system for 2013-14 and instead use field tests developed by a consortium of states? It sparked a stern warning from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan that doing so could cost the state a chunk of its federal Title I money.
But that apparently hasn’t slowed down the Golden State in its plans to use the field tests from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed the pertinent legislation today.
Cue a jubilant statement from Superintendent Tom Torlakson, and silence from the U.S. Department of Education, where hardly anyone is working because of the government shutdown.