UPDATED: Common Core test trouble bodes ill for program

UPDATE: Deanne Mosley, director of the Mississippi State Personnel Board, issued a statement Friday night on her agency's problems with approving a contract for Common Core testing.

Her statement:

"As communicated to Superintendent Wright and her staff, the $8 million contract she submitted could not be approved as a legal and proper expenditure of taxpayer funds as it did not follow Mississippi procurement laws. The New Mexico officials who selected this vendor to receive the contract did not take into account and did not follow Mississippi laws in place to protect Mississippi taxpayers.

PSCRB and MDE staffs worked diligently for months in an effort to determine if this contract could be legally approved. However, the end result was that it could not be legally approved.

The contract could not be approved as a sole-source contract since it does not meet the legal requirements of a sole-source contract. To be approved as a sole-source and awarded without competition, the service must be available from only a single supplier. The company selected by New Mexico officials is not the only company which can provide these services.

It is unfortunate that there have been allegations that politics entered into the decision or that Governor Phil Bryant directed me, as Chair of the Personal Service Contract Review Board, to deny Superintendent Wright's request to approve the contract. Those allegations are not true. No one had to influence me to follow the law and ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent properly and legally."

ORIGINAL STORY:

Difficulty inking a long-term contract for testing likely spells trouble for the embattled Common Core education standards in Mississippi and elsewhere.

The state Board of Education in a closed-door meeting Thursday approved an emergency $8.4 million one-year contract for testing students under Common Core. The Department of Education had withdrawn a four-year contract with Pearson PLC for approval after learning it would likely be rejected by the state's contract review board.

John Kelly, chairman of the state Board of Education, said several school districts are set for testing the first week of December, so the board had to approve the one-year stopgap.

"We had no reasonable alternative," he said.

It's unclear who's driving questions about MDE's contracting for Common Core testing. Several state procurement officials didn't return calls or had little or no comment Thursday.

But Gov. Phil Bryant has recently voiced opposition to the standards, mirroring several other Republican governors. And in Louisiana and other states, contract and procurement laws may thwart implementation of Common Core by preventing a shift to tests to measure students' achievement under it.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has vowed to oust Common Core from his state, issued an executive order to repeal the standards and prohibit related testing. He said Louisiana adopting the tests without a bidding process would violate state law. Louisiana's education chief refused and said preventing the tests would violate students' rights.

A testing contract for New Mexico is now in litigation, and that contract was being touted as the model, one on which other states would piggyback.

National education advocates say delays in states' entering contracts and implementing testing could help opponents derail Common Core.

Common Core standards are new guidelines for math and English that have been adopted by most states, aimed at making U.S. students ready for college and career and more competitive with other countries. Mississippi schools have been working toward the new standards for several years and students are scheduled to be tested on them starting next year. But tea party and other conservative leaders oppose the standards and say they will allow federal takeover of Mississippi's school curriculum.

The issue has already caused a split among Republicans in the Mississippi Legislature and debate over repealing Common Core standards is expected again in the 2015 session, with Bryant now weighing in. The governor has called Common Core "a failed program."

But the standards have drawn broad support from state business leaders. The Mississippi Economic Council, the state's chamber of commerce, has endorsed Common Core.

Mississippi Superintendent of Education Carey Wright said MDE had worked with the state contract review board for months in securing a contract, and that the board had recommended last spring that it be a sole-source contract.

"We worked in good faith to resolve any issues that arose, and we thought the contract was on track to be approved this month," Wright said. "We did not want to place teachers, administrators and 300,000 students in jeopardy by not having an assessment in place."

Contact Geoff Pender at (601) 961-7266 or gpender@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @GeoffPender on Twitter.