Did it just sound good?

Maybe.

Did Kansas really get out of Smarter Balanced yesterday?

We did some looking into this question after we received an email with the following comment that was posted on the article from yesterday:

It takes quite a bit of prodding to get CETE to admit it, but in the past they contracted out the writing of test questions to a third party. From 2006 until last year the vast majority of test questions (all but pilot questions that did not count in the score) were written by a California based company called West Ed. CETE put the questions into computer form and ran the computer system, but did not create the test questions.

Here is what we found on the WestEd website:

 WestEd is honored to serve as the Project Management Partner for the multi-state Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) — the first collaboration of its kind building a common assessment system among a majority of states.

Read more here.

WestEd was the prime contractor developing all elementary, middle school, and high school assessment items for the state of Kansas assessment program.

Read more here.

Will KU CETE be partnering with WestEd for future Kansas assessments?

We will keep you updated as we learn more.

Other states have also “left” SBAC or PARCC, but still find themselves connected…

Utah Never Left the SBAC

Is Indiana’s withdrawal from PARCC for real or for show?