NOT THE POPULAR KIDS: The number of states planning to use the PARCC and Smarter Balanced those tests to measure student's progress has dropped from 45 in 2011 to 20 in 2016, Education Next reports. As support for the Common Core among politicians and educators wanes, the closely aligned PARCC and Smarter Balanced tests have also fallen from favor, and as more states leave, the benefit of interstate comparability decreases.
It's not been a good year for either consortium or the Common Core. One clue as to why? In 2014, Gallup found that 76 percent of teachers supported the goals of Common Core, while only nine percent were in favor of using associated tests to evaluate teachers. Seems like the ends didn't justify the means for those teachings.
