Governor Bobby Jindal is feeling the push from a growing number of Louisiana House members who want to pull the state out of a standardized test related to Common Core standards.

Thirty-three state House lawmakers were behind the letter that was sent to the governor this week.  The letter is requesting to pull the state out of the standardized test Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers – or PARCC.

While Louisiana signed on to Common Core in 2010, the state has yet to sign up to use the PARCC – but is set to give the assessment to students in the third through eight grade in 2015.  Louisiana is one of the states that aided in the development of the assessment, so it’s presumed the education department will purchase the test.

“We support higher standards and rigor in the classroom, but every day, concern among parents is growing over Common Core,” Jindal stated.  Yet despite these comments, Common Core opponents fear that the state Senate will not vote to get out of PARCC, so they are trying to pressure the governor to opt out.

Common Core supporters Roemer and White want to move forward with the implementation of PARCC. Neither is interested in finding a new test for Louisiana.  Both believe implementation of a new test would cost more and be less effective.

I appreciate Gov. Bobby Jindal’s support of higher education standards, and agree that Common Core and assessments like PARCC aren’t the best way to measure countrywide what our students have learned. It remains to be seen what Louisiana, and the other Common Core states, will eventually do as it relates to the standards implementation.