The Department of Education on Thursday awarded $330 million to two groups of states to design new standardized tests to replace the end-of-year reading and math exams used over the past decade to measure achievement under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The new tests, which are to be aligned with the common academic standards that nearly 40 states have adopted in recent months, are to be ready for the 2014-15 school year, the department said.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the new tests would be of higher quality than the exams most states use now, which he has criticized as narrowly focused “bubble tests.” The two groups are made up of 44 states, 12