Dive Brief:
- The Oklahoma Board of Education will meet Friday to review a testing contract with Measured Progress that could be worth as much as $3.5 million.
- Last month, the board decided not to approve a new $2.8 million contract with CTB/McGraw Hill due to repeat years of tech issues experienced with that company.
- The board has known it needed to find a new testing company since spring, when tech glitches plagued the testing process. Some critics fear a late-October contract approval is pushing it and that teachers don't have enough time to adjust to a new exam by the December testing period.
Dive Insight:
In order to graduate from high school, Oklahoma students must pass various "end of instruction" exams, which is what all of this contracting is about. About 50,000 students are relying on Oklahoma to get it together and have a test ready by December.
The board wanted to find a new vendor after two years of testing glitches with CTB/McGraw Hill, but it made no moves to change the situation until recently. In fact, two weeks ago, State Superintendent Janet Barresi suggested rehiring CTB/McGraw Hill — at least for the winter. Regardless of the state's decision on how to proceed, there are many questions as to why it didn't act sooner. It's definitely concerning that such an important (and expensive) decision was left to the last minute.