In all the analysis of yesterday’s Race to the Top winners, not much has been said about what the results might mean for The Other Race to the Top competition. (Remember that $350 million hanging out there for new assessment systems?)
Just as I was thinking that I was the only one odd enough to notice that the Round 2 winners tilted pretty darn heavily toward one assessment consortium, I saw that I wasn’t alone. Blogger John Bailey over at the consulting outfit Whiteboard Advisors was noticing the same thing (hat tip to eduwonk for calling my attention to it).
Here’s how it boils down: Of the 12 RTT winners, 10 have signed up for the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, consortium, and only five have pledged their support to the SMARTER Balanced, or SBAC, consortium. (Three of the states are participating in both.)
RTT winners by assessment consortium:
• Delaware: SBAC, PARCC
• District of Columbia: PARCC
• Florida: PARCC
• Georgia: SBAC, PARCC
• Hawaii: SBAC
• Maryland: PARCC
• Massachusetts: PARCC
• New York: PARCC
• North Carolina: SBAC
• Ohio: SBAC, PARCC
• Rhode Island: PARCC
• Tennessee: PARCC
Another RTT/consortium note: Only three of the RTT winners—Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island—are participating in the consortium that is designing systems of high school assessments.