End-of-course testing: Vendor selected, syllabi on the way

From the Department of Education's Friday press release:

Kentucky has selected ACT, Inc. as its vendor for end-of-course examinations for the state’s public high school students.

The contract period is from May 9, 2011, to June 30, 2012, and is for a total of $5,486,700.

Senate Bill 1, enacted in the 2009 Kentucky General Assembly, requires a new public school assessment program beginning in the 2011-12 school year. The legislation allowed, with approval by the Kentucky Board of Education, an EOC assessment program at the high school level.

ACT, Inc. will provide assessments for English II, Algebra II, Biology and U.S. History through its QualityCore® program. The program is syllabus-driven and will include curriculum and instruction support materials. 

That last part looks like especially good news for parents who want a clear picture of what their children will be studying.  Once we can all see the syllabi for these four courses and teachers can share how they work in practice, maybe we'll have models that other teachers can use to create matching documents for other high school classes.

The full KDE press release is here, and further information on the tests we'll be using here.