Michigan Pays $4.9M For Membership In Common Core Group
By David Eggert, Associated Press
LANSING (AP) - Michigan is paying $4.9 million this school year to continue its membership in a group developing standardized tests aligned with national Common Core education standards.
A Missouri judge last week voided that state's fees to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, calling the consortium an "unlawful interstate compact" to which Congress never consented.
It is not known if the Michigan Education Department will keep paying the fee in the next academic year.
Spokesman Bill DiSessa told The Associated Press that the fee allows Michigan to include Smarter Balanced test items in new M-STEP exams this spring that are replacing the 44-year-old MEAP tests. The M-STEP is a stopgap after lawmakers rejected plans to administer the Smarter Balanced tests to roughly 800,000 students in grades 3-8 and 11th.
"With the late change in law this past year that required Michigan to create a last-minute, one-year test, this field-tested content is what was available to make this spring's M-STEP a valid assessment," DiSessa said.
With plans for a new test next year, "it is not known at this time" if this is the last year Michigan will pay the fee, he said.
Legislators had expressed concerns about schools' readiness to give the Smarter Balanced tests on computers, the length of the exams, their complexity and the process by which state officials decided to go with the tests.
The $4.9 million payment drew criticism from Rep. Phil Potvin, a Cadillac Republican who chairs the House subcommittee overseeing the education agency's budget.
He said he thought the GOP-led Legislature had cut off funding for Smarter Balanced.
"I thought we were pretty specific when we turned them down last year. I'll be even more specific this year just in case they don't understand plain English," Potvin said Monday.
Rep. Tim Kelly, a Saginaw Township Republican and chair of the House school aid budget subcommittee, said he also thought Michigan had "extracted" itself from the consortium but said the state would be winding up its participation.
For 4 ½ years, Michigan has participated in the consortium, one of two broad groups of states developing companion tests to the Common Core standards. The standards spell out what math and English language arts skills students should have at each grade, and are designed to develop more critical thinking skills than traditional school work.
After vigorous debate in 2013, the Legislature let Michigan continue transitioning to the new standards yet balked at the Smarter Balanced exam. The standards are a political issue in many states because they are viewed by conservative critics as a federal effort even though they were developed by governors.
Elementary and middle school students will take the M-STEP and future state tests starting this spring and no longer in the fall, so they are assessed on learning in the current school year rather than mostly the prior year.
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