PARCC Contracting

The PARCC consortium originally planned to have every participating state use the same testing company to write items, administer and score the new Common Core exams — and expected states to adopt the pricing models set forth in a model contract developed by New Mexico. But that vision may have to be overhauled due to the brouhaha over the Common Core in Louisiana, a spokesman for the consortium said tonight.
PARCC let the state of New Mexico request bids from testing companies for several years of Common Core assessments. Pearson was the sole bidder and won that contract. Other states in the consortium were then expected to adopt the same contract — without seeking other bids — for their own Common Core assessments, spokesman David Connerty-Marin said.
But in Louisiana, state Superintendent John White was planning to use an existing contract with Data Recognition Corporation to deliver the Common Core tests, according to his spokesman, Barry Landry. White told POLITICO that the state does not have a contract with PARCC, but planned to use PARCC content nonetheless, apparently through the vehicle of the existing contract with Data Recognition. Earlier tonight, however, the state commissioner of administration put a big crimp in that plan, announcing that it appeared to circumvent state procurement laws. The commissioner, Kristy Nichols, suspended the contract with Data Recognition immediately, pending an investigation.
PARCC had been unaware of White’s plans and was taken by surprise by Nichols’ statement, Connerty-Marin said. But he said the consortium was “committed to working with John White… to figure out a solution that works for Louisiana.”
“The original vision of the PARCC consortium was, and is, based on item security and comparability,” Connerty-Marin said. “The best path forward for those two things is a single administrator for the tests and a single scoring approach” across all participating states, he said.
“However, that said, sometimes politics happens,” Connerty-Marin said. “So if there is another way that will make this work for Louisiana, I think our governing board will certainly look at that.”
PARCC’s original plan was already in jeopardy before the contretemps in Louisiana, because a rival testing company had protested New Mexico’s bidding process, complaining it was rigged in favor of Pearson. A judge has ordered the state purchasing agent to investigate that complaint; both sides are currently filing briefs. There is no timetable for the decision. In the meantime, the contract in New Mexico is on hold and no other state can adopt it.
One more wrinkle in the saga: Pearson’s bid in New Mexico was based on the understanding that all the other PARCC states would adopt the same contract. It priced the tests accordingly.  If states instead pick their own vendors to administer and score PARCC questions, that could upend the economics for Pearson. “It’s just too early to say,” Connerty-Marin said. “We just don’t know the details.”

A contract to administer Common Core tests in all PARCC states would be worth billions of dollars over the next several years.