PARCC Hits The Courts

Lawyers from both sides of a legal challenge against the contract to write and administer the PARCC test have one month to send their proposed decisions to a Santa Fe District Court judge.

Judge Sarah Singleton says she will then begin to decide whether New Mexico rigged the PARCC contract to favor education conglomerate Pearson, as the plaintiff in the lawsuit alleges. At a court hearing Tuesday morning, she said her ruling could take weeks.

Though PARCC, an acronym for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, is a federally funded consortium of 12 states and the District of Columbia, most associate it with its standardized test. The PARCC test, which students across New Mexico began taking last week, is being administered for the first time this year. It replaces the state's previous flagship standardized test, the Standards Based Assessment, and abides by the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

New Mexico, one of the PARCC member states, in 2013 stepped forward to serve as the purchasing agent for the consortium to handle the request for proposal for the contract to write and administer the test. Officials awarded the contract to education conglomerate Pearson, the world's largest education corporation and a staple among writing textbooks and tests in public schools.

But the American Institutes for Research, a Washington DC-based education nonprofit, sued the state Public Education Department and State Procurement Officer Larry Maxwell alleging that the contract was rigged to favor Pearson.

Because the contract encompasses the entire consortium, it's expected to reach between 6-10 million students and net the company $1 billion over eight years. That scope came into question during the court hearing.

"I really do not understand," the judge said, why New Mexico is contracting for so many tests.

Benjamin Feuchter, an attorney representing the state, responded the big number represents tests for students in more than a dozen states.

"I think you were going to test every single one of us about four times," Singleton said.

"Well, if you ask my fourth grader, that's what it feels like," responded a chuckling Feuchter.

Chief among AIR's allegations are that the bid required the winner of the contract to use Pearson's online testing system for the first year of PARCC testing. Such provisions, AIR argues, meant that only Pearson could win the contract.

AIR first filed a protest to State Purchasing Agent Larry Maxwell, which was denied last July, and then filed suit against Maxwell and the state Public Education Department later that month.

Pearson, which filed a motion to intervene in the suit, argued today that the contract actually didn't specify that that PARCC use the company's online testing system for the first year.

"The state told other vendors they could submit offer including their own platform," argued attorney Karen Walker. "AIR chose not to."

AIR attorney Tom McGovern disputed that characterization, stating that he had "a mount of evidence" to show otherwise.

Both sides have until April 10 to get their written proposals to solve the case to Singleton. If she makes a drastic ruling in favor of the plaintiff, it could mean a new bid for years two through eight of the PARCC test.

Santa Fe Reporter