Georgia Withdraws from National Test Consortium
Martha Dalton / WABE
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Georgia has withdrawn from a national test consortium linked to the Common Core education standards. State education officials say the test is just too expensive.
The consortium is called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC. To test in three subjects—reading, writing, and math— PARCC would cost $29.50 per student. Georgia Department of Education spokesman Matt Cardoza says that’s a lot more than Georgia is spending now.
“Our testing budget overall right now is anywhere from $8-9 per student,” he says. “But that’s for all areas that we test, not just English/Language Arts and math.”
PARCC is one of two national testing consortia aligned to the Common Core. Georgia originally participated in the other consortium, Smarter Balanced, but withdrew from that as well. One of the reasons for developing the consortia is comparability—being able to compare the performance of a 4th grader in Georgia to that of one in Massachusetts, for example. But Cardoza says Georgia isn’t out on a limb.
“What we’re looking at is working with other states to develop a test, where we do have some comparability,” Cardoza says. “So, it’s not as if we’re just going to be out there by ourselves.”
Georgia plans to have the new assessment in place for the 2014-2015 school year, the same year PARCC was scheduled to begin.
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