Dive Brief:
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New America’s Education Policy Program recently released “Mapping College Ready Policies 2015-16,” which examines states’ progress on ensuring all students are prepared for college.
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Among the key findings was the idea that states are shifting the way they look at standardized tests. Between 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years, 21 states changed at least one state English language arts or math test, and a growing number of states dropped comprehensive end-of-the-year exams in favor of the SAT or ACT.
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Many states are moving away from common assessments; PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments were being discarded for grades 3-8 in six states, and ten states backed away from use in high school.
Dive Insight:
The organization suggested the broad-ranging trends may “be contributing to the stagnating effort of states to bring their high school and higher education policies into alignment in the future.”
The trend away from PARCC and other Common Core-associated tests comes as many states are preparing for ESSA implementation. ESSA gives states a higher level of autonomy and trends away from such heavy federal oversight. The Race to the Top grant program and federal waivers for states from the most stringent NCLB requirements both used the adoption of Common Core or similar standards as an eligibility requirement, leading to accusations of federal overreach and a lot of the demand for more state education autonomy. Many have pondered over the “death” of Common Core.