Washington, Oregon seek to develop standardized tests for many states to use | OregonLive.com

Washington, Oregon seek to develop standardized tests for many states to use | OregonLive.com

Washington, Oregon seek to develop standardized tests for many states to use

Published: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 11:46 AM Updated: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 2:00 PM

Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian
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Washington and Oregon are among the 31 states that applied today for $160 million in federal funding to develop rigorous new reading and math tests that would be used to evaluate students and schools in many states.

The joint application, submitted by Washington on behalf of the so-called Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, is one of at least two applications seeking to win $320 million of federal funds set aside to develop such a test.

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The tests the group says it would develop would be similar in some ways to the exams Oregon already gives. Students would take the tests on computers and would have more than one chance a year to prove they meet grade-level standards.

But, unlike Oregon's current exams, the new tests wouldn't be limited to multiple-choice questions. And they would be pegged to the recently released nationwide English and math standards that are reputed to be harder than Oregon's current standards, the Common Core Standards.

The U.S. Department of Education will announce in September which team or teams of states have won the money. Competing with the 31-state consortium is another group of 21 states, headed by