With states increasingly having walked away from the common-core-aligned tests developed by two federally funded consortia—especially at the high school level—one of those assessment groups is looking to hit the refresh button with a new type of test that is useful for both federal accountability and college admissions.
The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium put out a request for proposals last week seeking a partnership with a group that provides a college-admission test accepted by at least 200 colleges and universities—in other words, either ACT or the College Board, which administers the SAT.
The idea is to create a hybrid test that would give students both a Smarter Balanced score and a college-entrance score, though the RFP notes other innovative solutions will be considered.