In face of big fines, Torlakson retreats from conflict with feds over testing
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| Students will take computerized field tests aligned to Common Core standards in math and English next year, state officials announced. Credit: EdSource file photo |
Faced with potentially tens of millions of dollars in fines, the state Department of Education has backed down from its confrontation with the federal government over standardized testing.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced Thursday that he would require school districts to offer computer-based Common Core practice tests in both math and English language arts next spring. A new law changing the state’s standardized testing program, Assembly Bill 484, which Torlakson and Gov. Jerry Brown supported and thatsparked a dispute with the federal government, required only that students be given one of the assessments, although it didn’t explicitly prevent Torlakson from offering both tests.
The state’s one-test policy was at odds with long-standing federal law, that all students in for grades 3 to 8 and grade 11 be tested annually in both subjects. And it prompted an assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Education to warn state officials last month that the feds might withhold $45 million to the state Department of Education, plus potentially larger amounts in federal Title I dollars for low-income and special education students.
Torlakson’s carefully worded news release makes no mention of the conflict with the federal