Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Monday directed state education leaders to sever Arkansas' membership in a multistate student testing consortium that produced online math and literacy tests for more than 200,000 students this past year.
The gubernatorial directive leaves wide open the question of what tests will be administered to Arkansas students in the coming 2015-16 school year to comply with a federal law that mandates states to test students in math and literacy in third grade through high school.
The governor said in a letter to Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key that he has the authority to end the state's membership in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, an organization of nine states and the District of Columbia that came up with what are commonly known as the PARCC exams.
That authority to sever the partnership comes from language in a 2010 memorandum of understanding between the state and PARCC, he said.
But Hutchinson acknowledged in the same letter that while he would prefer that Arkansas adopt ACT Inc. testing products, the state Board of Education has the statutory responsibility to select student tests. The state Education Board had on June 11 rejected his earlier call for the test change.
"The issue here is how we can provide a high-level assessment for students and bring long-term stability to the schools," Hutchinson wrote to Key. "In my judgment, ACT and ACT Aspire are the right assessment tools to accomplish the goal of national comparison of student achievement and long-term stability.
"I recognize the role of the State Board of Education in assessment selection and that certain steps are required to make a change. Please coordinate with the State Board of Education to select a new assessment provider."
Key said later Monday that Arkansas Department of Education staff will notify the PARCC organization of the governor's decision today and begin developing options for a student testing program to present to the Education Board, most likely at its next regular meeting, July 9.
At that time as many as three of the nine current board members -- all of whom were appointed by the Republican Hutchinson's predecessor Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe -- will likely have been replaced.
The terms of board members Sam Ledbetter of Little Rock and Alice Mahony of El Dorado expire at the end of this month and board member Kim Davis of Fayetteville has announced he is resigning because of job obligations.
Key said he doesn't anticipate a special meeting of the Education Board to be held on the testing issue prior to the July 9 meeting because of the board members' business and summer vacation commitments over the next few weeks.
"The July meeting is pretty early in the month anyway," Key said. "The department is going to work toward having options to present to them at the regular meeting in July."
He said the ACT and ACT Aspire -- rejected for a variety of reasons by the state Education Board earlier this month -- won't be the only options the staff will develop for the board's consideration.
"We'll certainly present thoughts and information about ACT and Aspire based on questions we have been asked," Key said. He also said that "all the options are being evaluated," including the possibility of issuing a "request for proposals" from all testing companies that have an interest in doing business with the state.
The state of Arkansas is paying about $8.5 million for this past year's PARCC exams that were given in two parts -- in March and May. The state is not expected to receive the results of those tests until October or November, as the result of going through the process of setting different achievement levels -- such as basic, proficient and advanced on new tests.
In his letter to Key, the governor cited a provision in the state's 2010 memorandum of understanding with the PARCC organization that allows him to end the partnership with the group of states.
"In the event that the governor or chief state school officer is replaced in a Consortium state, the successor in that office shall affirm in writing to the Governing Board Chair the state's continued commitment to participation in the Consortium and to the binding commitments made by that official's predecessor within five (5) months of taking office," the governor quoted the memorandum.
"I was sworn in as the newly elected governor of Arkansas on January 13, 2015, and since I took office there has been no action by the Governor or the Commissioner of Education to reaffirm the State's continued commitment and participation in the PARCC consortium," Hutchinson wrote. "On the contrary, I have publicly expressed my support for withdrawing from PARCC."
On June 8 the governor called for state education leaders to replace the PARCC exams with the venerable ACT college entrance exam for 11th-graders and the related but much newer ACT Aspire tests in reading, writing, math and science for elementary, middle and early high school grades.
He said at that time he was making the recommendation based on the advice of the Governor's Council on Common Core Review, a 16-member group of educators, parents and businessmen, he appointed earlier this year to evaluate and make possible recommendations on the Common Core State Standards in math and English/language arts.
A majority of states, including Arkansas, adopted the common set of standards in 2010. Arkansas phased in the standards as the basis for classroom curriculum and instruction over the 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years.
The state at the same time joined with a coalition of about 20 states to develop tests based on the new standards. The number of participating states, however, decreased over time to nine -- counting Arkansas -- and Washington, D.C.
The council has not yet made any public recommendations on the Common Core State Standards but did make a recommendation on the test -- with a show of hands during a lunch break -- because of upcoming contract deadlines.
The state Education Board at its June 11 meeting voted 7-1 against changing to the ACT and ACT Aspire tests, and followed that with another 7-1 vote to proceed with the PARCC exams, which included signing a new contract with the consortium by a July 1 deadline.
Rep. Mark Lowery, R- Maumelle, said he and other upset lawmakers would block approval of the PARCC contract when it would come before the Legislative Council and its subcommittees for review.
Lowery was a sponsor of a bill during the legislative session earlier this year to abandon the PARCC exam even before it was given to students. That bill was amended to prohibit the state Education Board from entering into a contract with PARCC for more than one year.
Lowery said Monday that he was still hopeful that ACT and ACT Aspire would be the selected tests for Arkansas.
"I know they want to move with some haste to transition to another assessment," he said, referring to state education officials. "I hope that desire for haste will prompt them to take the recommendation of the ACT."
In his letter Monday, Hutchinson said that based on legislative actions earlier this year, "it is clear that legislators want to move away from PARCC. It should also be noted that the number of other states participating in PARCC has dropped substantially, a trend that could make the prospect of cross-state comparability difficult in the future. To ensure the highest standards, we want to know how Arkansas' students compare with those across the nation."
The ACT college entrance exam is taken by more than 90 percent of high school graduates in this state. It and the SAT, produced by the College Board, are the most popular college entrance exams in the nation.
The ACT Aspire was given this past school year in South Carolina and Alabama and in selected grades in Wisconsin, according to a ACT Inc. spokesman earlier this month.
Supporters of the use of the Aspire exam in this state say they anticipate that more states will choose to give the Aspire exam, which would enable Arkansas to compare student performance here with those states.
A Section on 06/23/2015