Planned Common Core testing in Oklahoma crashe$
Plans to adopt new Common Core State Standards tests from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) consortium have apparently crashed in Oklahoma following the stark realization there that PARCC’s mandatory on line testing format requires far more digital equipment support than the “Sooners” can supply.
“A survey of the state's 1,773 schools found that just one in five had enough bandwidth and a sufficient number of digital devices to successfully administer the exams….”Just like in Kentucky, rural school access to the truly high speed Internet services required to support the PARCC tests (EdWeek mentions fiber caliber service) simply is not available.
Kentucky is also an observer participant in the PARCC effort, though that status does not commit us to actually adopt those tests.
Of course, Kentucky had problems aplenty with its own on line K-PREP testing this year, as well.
Thus, comments from Common Core critics that significant costs related to this new education approach were not thought through are being borne out in Oklahoma.