Terry, I wasn’t here when the decision was made. All rhetoric aside, why isn’t North Carolina using a nationally-standardized test? There are plenty of alternatives, and I doubt our curriculum is so different from other states’ that a test instrument not invented in North Carolina wouldn’t still give a valid assessment.
Granted, DPI and SBE officials would probably find it embarrassing at the time of transition, but even with a strong nonpublic school community in this state, about 88% of parents send their kids to the traditional public schools — no doubt, they would continue to do. So why not?