Ohio cuts funding for PARCC Common Core testing. What's next?
Ohio's new two-year budget bill effectively prohibits the state from spending on tests developed by the Common Core's PARCC. Other states have taken similar stances.
Ohio's new two-year budget bill effectively prohibits the state from spending on tests developed by the Common Core's PARCC. Other states have taken similar stances.
On Tuesday night Ohio governor John Kasich signed the state鈥檚 two-year budget bill, which included a section prohibiting spending on tests developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), a program which has provoked many complaints from educators.
As The Washington Post reported, PARCC is one of two federally funded consortia attempting to produce exams that will test American students on Common Core education benchmarks.聽These rigorous standardized tests were developed by PARCC with the intention of measuring 鈥渨hether students are on track to be successful in college and their careers,鈥� according to the PARCC website.
The tests are computer-based and include assessments in Mathematics and English.
While Common Core standards have been around since 2009, PARCC testing only recently entered the classroom.聽Students in 11 states and the District of Columbia participated in the assessment鈥檚 pilot run in the 2014-2015 school year.聽Several participating states, including Ohio, have expressed their disillusionment with the tests.
In Massachusetts, school districts were left to decide between PARCC and their established statewide standardized test program, even though the state originally agreed to administer the test to all districts. Only 54 percent of districts decided to give the PARCC exam, rather than the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS).
Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas announced in June that the state would be terminating its agreement with PARCC and planned on contracting with ACT and ACT Aspire for the 2015-2016 school year.聽
In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal issued an executive order that allowed parents to exercise their choice to opt out of the PARCC exam.聽Last June Governor Jindal told reporters at a news conference that Louisiana wanted 鈥渙ut of the Common Core.鈥�
The Ohio Department of Education released a statement shortly after Governor Kasich cut funding for PARCC:
But Ohio isn鈥檛 moving far beyond the college- and career-oriented PARCC exams. Their other options for testing include Smarter Balanced, the other Common Core testing consortium, and the ACT Aspire, among others.
And Kasich doesn鈥檛 seem likely to move away from Common Core standards.聽In January he appeared on Fox News and dismissed criticisms of heightened education standards.聽
"The Common Core was written by state education superintendents and local principals," he said. "In my state of Ohio, we want higher standards for our children, and those standards are set and the curriculum is set by local school boards. Barack Obama doesn't set it, the state of Ohio doesn't set it. It is local school boards driving better education, higher standards, created by local school boards.鈥�