Dive Brief:
- Now that more states are not only using the Common Core and its aligned tests, they're also increasingly borrowing tests questions from one another.
- When Georgia found itself short on test questions during the 2013-14 school year, it turned to Kentucky for some help, since it knew Kentucky was already using the Common Core-aligned K-PREP test, Education Week reports.
- While sharing questions does save time and money, it also makes it harder to ensure there is a good balance between general questions and state-tailored questions, explains Education Week.
Dive Insight:
An interesting tidbit in the Education Week article is the fact that while Georgia was borrowing from Kentucky, Kentucky was borrowing from Illinois. This chain of question sharing between states is definitely something new, at least when it comes to state exams. That said, on a more mircro-level, this sort of exchange has been happening for quite some time. Sites like Better Lesson and ShareMyLesson allow educators from across the nation to share resources, assignments, and even test questions.
