Dive Brief:

• The Maryland Senate approved a 19-person committee, which will spend a year reviewing the state's standardized testing system.
• The bill, which now is on its way to the house, aims to dig into the state's way the new Common Core-aligned exam is being distributed. 
• This month the state's students began taking the controversial exam for the first time. Pushback against the test has been about the new standards and the fact that the tests must be taken digitally. 

Dive Insight:

It is still not exactly clear what this committee will be doing. Yes, they are checking up on how the state administers its standardized tests, but how they collect that data is unclear. Remember that tests are given now, so if the committee is created later this year, the current window for observation is somewhat over. There is also the question of what the recommendations will lead to.  

Earlier this month, the Maryland senate tried to pass a bill that would halt the Common Core, but it failed.