Dive Brief:

• California is keeping testing tied to the Common Core State Standards as a practice run this year while also making efforts to keep parents’ expectations in check as the release of test scores looms.
• Unlike many states, California’s leaders — from the state’s governor and schools chief to the teacher unions and superintendents — have formed a united front in favor of the Common Core standards.
• The state has taken a measured approach to implementing the standards, including keeping teacher evaluations separate from student test scores and pouring extra dollars into schools to ease the transition.

Dive Insight:

For any state hoping to quiet some Common Core controversy, opponents and proponents in California agree: most of the calm comes from the decision not to tie student test scores to measures of teachers performance. But that decision came at a substantial cost, including losing out on millions in federal dollars under President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top program. The state also has a relatively like-minded political leadership, as opposed to states like Indiana where state education leaders have engaged in high-profile spats over the standards.

Still, even California has had to grapple with some of the technological and social challenges that accompany the tests, including parental opposition to the added computer time the electronic tests require. Other states have faced hackings and insufficient bandwidth.