NPR – Cory Turner
“This past spring, 5 million students from third grade through high school took new, end-of-year tests in math and English that were developed by a consortium of states known as PARCC. It’s a big deal because these tests are aligned to the Common Core learning standards, and they’re considered harder than many of the tests they replaced. It’s also a big deal because until last year, it was all but impossible to compare students across state lines. Not anymore. There’s just one problem: The results won’t be released for a long time (late fall). What’s the holdup, you ask? The tests have all been read and the answers tallied. That’s not the problem. The problem is, adding up right answers doesn’t tell you how a child did. For that, you need cut scores. And PARCC doesn’t have them yet.”(more)