How Common Core Changed Standardized Tests

When the U.S. Department of Education awarded $350 million to two consortia of states in September 2010 to develop new assessments measuring performance of the Common Core State Standards, state commissioners of education called it a milestone in American education. By working together, states can make greater—and faster—progress than we can if we go it alone, said Mitchell Chester, the late Massachusetts education commissioner and chair of the PARCC Governing Board from 2010 to 2015. Eight years later, the number of states participating in at least one of the two consortia that developed the new assessments has dropped from 44 to 16, plus the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Bureau of Indian Education, and the Department of Defense Education Agency. The reasons for leaving vary, but nevertheless, this decrease in participation makes it easy for some to declare the program a failure. A closer look, however, suggests that Commissioner Chester's optimism was not misplaced.