The truth behind Arizona’s sudden withdrawal from PARCC

Cross-posted in Education

Conflict of interest? Say it ain't so!

"Governor Jan Brewer and Superintendent of Instruction John Huppenthal pulled Arizona out of the Common Core/PARCC testing group this past Friday to supposedly erase any hint of conflict of interest when considering bids for our next state test contract. If your gut is telling you that something doesn’t feel right, trust your gut.

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The only fly in Arizona’s soup was that, in order to prevent cronyism, we have laws that mandate that all government contracts go through an “open bidding “process. The state must collect multiple bids from testing companies in this case, and then they must objectively choose the best company to create Arizona’s Common Core assessment.

In this case the AZ State Board of Education, a Brewer appointed group on which Superintendent of Instruction John Huppenthal also sits, will be reviewing all bids for the contract to provide Arizona’s Common Core-aligned state test and would award the bid to one company. The members should reveal any conflict of interest they may have in choosing amongst the bidding companies.

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Subsequently, this past Friday Gov Brewer and John Huppenthal simultaneously suddenly “realized” that there were indeed conflicts of interest with remaining in the PARCC testing group while the PARCC group was submitting a bid to become our state’s Common Core test provider, aided by information from its state leads no less. In a public show of transparency, to prevent the appearance of a conflict of interest, and in a major CYA move, they decided to withdraw Arizona from the PARCC group in the meantime.

More:

http://www.arizonadailyindependent.com/2014/06/01/truth-behind-arizonas-sudden-withdrawal-from-parcc/