Once again, NC must pick a company to test K-3 reading skills. Can it be done fairly?
The way North Carolina will select a program to test the reading skills of the state’s youngest students is starting again, amid questions about whether it can be done fairly.
Under the Read To Achieve program, North Carolina elementary schools are required to test K-3 students throughout the year. Last week, the state Department of Public Instruction announced it was canceling the controversial three-year, $8.3 million contract with Istation so that it could rebid a contract before the start of the next school year.
“We are facing a very different school setting next year, but we are still required by law to have a reading diagnostic,”State Superintendent Mark Johnson said at Thursday’s State Board of Education meeting.
Johnson will suggest a provider to the state board after getting a recommendation from an evaluation committee that he’ll form. State board members questioned how independent the recommendation can be, considering that Johnson publicly criticized Amplify Education, one of the likely bidders.
“What are the assurances of independence, which strikes me and which I suspect strikes some board members as critical at this point, given the amount of controversy that has regrettably surrounded this situation?” said state board vice chairman Alan Duncan.
K-3 teachers used to have their students read out loud to them using Amplify’s mClass program to assess their skills. Under Istation, students have been tested on a computer program, with the results being provided to teachers.
Selection of Istation questioned
An evaluation committee had rated Amplify ahead of Istation. But Johnson charges that their work was tainted and formed a new committee that recommended Istation. The contract was approved by the state board in June.
Amplify appealed the decision to the state Department of Information Technology, which blocked the new contract until it made a ruling. In the meantime, the state has been using Istation under emergency contracts.
Johnson said the multi-year Istation contract was canceled because the tests aren’t expected to be required this school year after coronavirus shut school facilities.
“We want to make sure that this is very transparent,” Johnson said. “We are working very closely with NCDIT to make sure that this is done completely on the up and up so that we do not have this controversy again.”
Board members said the selection process has to be both transparent and independent.
“As independent a process as we can get before that recommendation comes back to us I think would serve us well,” said state board member JB Buxton.
Thursday’s bickering was the latest in the ongoing feud between Johnson and the state board. Johnson is a Republican and the board has a Democratic majority, although they quarreled when it had a GOP majority too.
Johnson was elected in 2016 but his term is ending this year after he unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.
Johnson complained about the board adding at the last minute Thursday a response to a critical audit from state Auditor Beth Wood that questioned how DPI oversaw several grants. State board chair Eric Davis said they wanted to quickly respond after the audit was released Wednesday night.
“It is just another sad chapter in this ongoing, unfortunately petty back-and-forth between the State Board of Education and the hardworking staff at the Department of Public Instruction,” Johnson said.
This story was originally published April 30, 2020 at 2:27 PM with the headline "Once again, NC must pick a company to test K-3 reading skills. Can it be done fairly?."
