Arkansas To Pull Out Of Common Core PARCC Exam

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by Steve Brawner ([email protected]) June 8, 2015 12:12 pm 121 views 

The Arkansas Department of Education will terminate its contract with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, the end-of-the-year test associated with the Common Core State Standards, and instead pursue entering a contract with ACT and ACT Aspire for the 2015-16 school year.

Education Commissioner Johnny Key said he would ask the State Board of Education Thursday to consider formally approving the transition to ACT and ACT Aspire. Arkansas will receive the results from this year’s PARCC assessment, its first, in the fall.

The move comes after Gov. Asa Hutchinson asked the department to make the change based on a recommendation by the Governor’s Council on Common Core Review, a study group he appointed led by Lt. Governor Tim Griffin. The group has been hearing from education experts and is conducting a listening tour across the state, with stops in Batesville, Pine Bluff and Fort Smith remaining.

“I have accepted the recommendation of the Common Core Review Council that the state leave PARCC and use the ACT and ACT Aspire, pending state Board of Education approval and a contract agreement with ACT and ACT Aspire,” Hutchinson said in a statement released by his office.

According to a press release from the office, Hutchinson made the request now because of timing and won’t make any more recommendations until the study group has finished the listening tour.

The release said the council had recommended the move because of the ACT being nationally recognized, the ability of the ACT to be compared across states, the fact that ACT testing takes half the time of PARCC testing, and the ACT’s “relevance to students.”

The Common Core is a set of standards shared by most states that has become a political lightning rod – especially the PARCC test, which originally involved 24 states but has since been reduced to nine, including Arkansas, plus the District of Columbia. A bill that would have ended Arkansas’ participation in PARCC passed the House this year but failed in the Senate Education Committee until it was amended to allow Arkansas to enter into no more than a one-year contract with PARCC.