Coming to Joplin soon: the new Common Core Acuity tests

Over the past several months, I have written many times about the people who are making a killing off Common Core State Standards- those who make money from testing, test prep, and technology.

The testing companies, especially Pearson and McGraw-Hill were at the table when Common Core Standards were written and they are ready to cash in now.

Several months ago, the state of Missouri awarded the contract for Common Core testing (this was before the state legislature threw what will at least be a temporary roadblock to Common Core implementation) to McGraw-Hill. Even worse, the state also bought Acuity,the test prep program that the Joplin R-8 School District has been foisting upon teachers and students for the past several years.

Acuity testing has taken up weeks of prime teaching time so that the layers and layers of administrators and quasi-administrators (and administrators-in-waiting known as teaching/learning coaches) can have meaningless data.

McGraw-Hill has created a speaking new Common Core version of Acuity, which it announced in the following news release, which was issued today:

/PRNewswire/ -- McGraw-Hill Education today launched the Acuity® College and Career Readiness solution, a new interim assessment focused on ensuring students in Grades 3–8 are prepared for both college and careers. With all new test items specifically created to measure preparedness for new college and career readiness standards, Acuity College and Career Readiness CCR is the first interim assessment solution to reflect the unique, individual blueprints of both Smarter Balanced and PARCC summative assessments. Acuity CCR can also be configured to meet the unique specifications of other state summative blueprints.

With its rich diagnostic insights, Acuity CCR enables educators to deliver a personalized intervention plan for each student with engaging, digital standards-based instructional resources. The Acuity CCR solution includes several innovative approaches to interim assessments, combining a unique blend of technology and content to create the most powerful solution for consortia readiness:
All new items, written to reflect college and career readiness standards, and the item specifications from both Smarter Balanced and PARCC
Technology-enhanced item types – created in HTML 5 for delivery on modern devices and tablets – that provide evidence of student mastery of college and career readiness standards
Constructed response, evidence-based selected response, and performance task item types that fully measure standards where multiple choice items cannot
A forthcoming adaptive testing option

The Acuity CCR solution's growth measurement is unique among interim solutions in that it is designed to ensure educators get the right evidence to make the best decisions at the student and class level. In the first year, Acuity's College and Career Readiness scale will let educators reliably measure individual student growth between interim tests. In subsequent years, Acuity will empower teachers to compare students' growth year-to-year and to each other. The high quality content included in the solution possesses the variety, rigor and authentic standards alignment needed to prepare students for college and career.

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