Originally there were 31 states in the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA)consortium.  Today there are 22.  9 or 29% have dropped out…  But it is worse for PARCC… Their drop out rate is… 38.4%  They lost 10 states out of the 26 signed on…..

Why is Delaware so adamant in sticking with their commitment when others are jumping into lifeboats and being lowered off the main deck?  Is it because we want to be the last to play in the ship’s band?

What happens to our costs, when the cost of producing these tests originally spread over 31 states, now has to be shared by only 22? Can we afford to pay that much more when we have a cheaper test, the DCAS, working well for us at the moment?  Why should we pay twice as much, or two thirds more per student, simply because we are the only ones still sitting at the party when the check arrives?

What happens to the quality of the test?  When any business is forced to cut back, it cuts back on the quality of all it sells.  It has to make up the difference in some way?   Just like a really nice phone at roll-out, comes out of the factory cheap and tawdry after a couple of years, so will our tests…

And we have so much riding one them…. Like…. OUR CHILDREN?

That leaves 26% of our states which are neither PARCC or Smarter Balanced…. That is more than one out of four which will not be taking the Common Core tests…   One out of four…   David Coleman has orchestrated the biggest flop since the Edsel……

If these tests are so flawed that everyone is jumping ship…. why does Delaware insist on using these flawed pieces of product to fire teachers and close schools?

One can understand ignorance.  But there is too much evidence to be ignorant anymore.  THESE TESTS ARE BAD…  Grownups who are highly educated, can’t pass 3rd grade tests.  They have been tested on real live children.  We know they do not work.  We know they destroy schools.  We know they interfere with teaching. We know they make children cry… and throw up.  Using garbage to determine quality has never worked.  Instead of a solid piece of evidence to support a personnel decision, with these test results, all we have is capriciousness…. and subjectivity…  All future personnel decision will boil down not to quality… but whether someone likes you or not….

A lot of good teachers are going to be fired over this test… And other states know it… They bailed, and have left Markell standing, holding the bag…. which will soon be filled with requests for money… our money….

And the idea behind Common Core was that all the nation’s students will be tested in the same way… But with the breakdown of every state now creating their own proficiency levels, at what point can we compare one state to another?

All that money….. wasted…. tsk. tsk…..