Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Puerto Rico alone have officially submitted applications for the Every Student Succeeds Act’s Innovative Assessment pilot, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
The pilot, which was initially one of the most buzzed-about pieces of ESSA, allows up to seven states to try out new forms of testing in a handful of districts, with the goal of eventually taking them statewide. More than a dozen states—including large ones like New York—mulled applying but ended up deciding against it.
The rules don’t make participation easy. States must make sure the new tests are comparable to their state exam and are accessible to English-language learners and students in special education—all without additional financial resources.
