Vision, Reality Collide in #CommonCore Tests In states across the country, field-testing of the exams that will measure students mastery of the Common Core State Standards is well underway. Much attention is focusing on the questions that this testing of the test will inevitably raise about bandwidth, access for special populations, and standard-setting. But behind those questions lurks a more conceptual one: In terms of overall execution, how do the exams crafted by the two main state testing coalitions—the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC—stack up to what they promised in their $360 million bids for federal funding? There are two ways to consider the question. One is a glass-half-full reading, which focuses on the exams technological advances and embrace of performance-based assessment. On the flip side, a confluence of political, technical, and financial constraints have led to some scaling back of the ambitious plans the consortia first laid out. Read more here: edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/04/23/29cc-promises.h33.html
Posted on: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 21:05:01 +0000