Those would be significant challenges were there no competition, but ACT has made no secret of its intention to seek states»
Common Core assessment contracts — and Alabama may turn out to be the first of many to sign up.
The state
contracted with private, nonprofit organizations to develop new curricula aligned to the
common core, developed a web site that included sample lessons and professional - development materials, and then developed a new
assessment tied to the standards and administered it in the spring of 2013 — two years before most states had planned to put new tests in place.
Notable recently were the Gates Foundation's call for a two - year moratorium on tying results from
assessments aligned to the
Common Core to consequences for teachers or students; Florida's legislation to eliminate consequences for schools that receive low grades on the state's pioneering A-F school grading system; the teetering of the multi-state Partnership for
Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)
assessment consortium (down from 24 to 15 members, and with its
contract with Pearson to deliver the
assessments in limbo because of a lawsuit that alleges bid - rigging); and the groundswell of opposition from parents, teachers, and political groups to the content of the
Common Core.