Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/348932
24 Fall 2014 x AEA Advocate ADE Puts Out RFP for New Assessment State Withdraws from PARCC The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) and Governor Jan Brewer recently put out a statement about Arizona's withdrawal from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Arizona State Board of Education has posted a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a new statewide assessment to replace AIMS and that is aligned to the Arizona College and Career Ready Standards. In a press release, ADE and the Governor state: "Arizona's College and Career Ready Standards remain intact. Arizona continues to move deliberately towards replacing AIMS with a meaningful state assessment aligned to the standards." AEA has received many questions about the state's actions and the status of Common Core, known as the Arizona College and Career Ready Standards (ACCRS) in Arizona. Below is an FAQ regarding the state's PARCC announcement: 1. Does this mean PARCC is not replacing AIMS? AIMS will be replaced. We don't know which assessment is replacing AIMS yet. The law requires the state to put out an RFP to select a vendor for the new assessment aligned to ACCRS. PARCC is likely to be one of the assessments considered, but we won't know which one is chosen until the fall. 2. Didn't the state field test PARCC? Why is the state choosing a different assessment? PARCC is a collection of states, of which Arizona was a part of, that agreed to create an assessment aligned to ACCRS. The field tests were part of a contract to provide data on how to improve the PARCC assessment. Arizona may still choose to give the PARCC assessment in the spring after considering all responses to the RFP. 3. If the state is pulling out of PARCC, does this mean Arizona is giving up on ACCRS? No. There is no change to the new state standards and the state is moving forward by looking at an assessment that is aligned with them. AEA supports high standards for our students and believe that the new state standards have the potential to improve student learning. However, we are concerned about the state's lack of support and resources to our public schools to get the implementation of the standards and assessment right. While we support the state's attempt at fairness to the process of selecting a statewide assessment, we are concerned that all of these changes put school employees in an unfair position. The assessment should be a tool to help inform teachers in the classroom about student progress and learning. Assessments should not be used to judge, label, and punish teachers and schools. This past legislative session, AEA pushed for a moratorium on student test scores being tied to employee evaluations because we believe the state should validate the assessment before implementing it into an accountability system; however, with our current Arizona Legislature, we will not see the kind of legislation needed to improve our public education system. We all have an opportunity to create the Arizona we want this election season in the Primary Election on August 26 and the General Election on November 4. Be sure to check out AEA's recommended candidates on page 19. Arizona public schools need leaders who will stand up for them and support them by restoring the $1.5 billion in cuts to education and ensuring that our public school employees have the resources and time to teach these higher standards. We need to ensure Arizona elects leaders who treat our teachers and education support staff with the respect their profession deserves. 2 AT THE CAPITOL