The Department of Education has rejected an application by a group of California-led states to offer an alternative set of assessments for English-language learners to a group of states led by Wisconsin.
Why?
It’s hard to know for certain why Wisconsin’s World Class Design and Assessments (WIDA) recieved $10 million and the other testing consortia received none.
However, one can only assume that the Department of Education is intending to do what seems to be an endless priority — push for ever-increased consolidation on standards, assessment, and curricula. The more consolidation there is, the less influence each state would have relative to the federal Department of Education.