AND THE TESTS ARE JUST RENAMED COMMON CORE EXAMS:

[M]ore than 20 states chose to quit their testing consortia between 2012 and today, and have instead tried to go it alone on tests once again.

But now, the decision to go it alone on standardized tests is looking like it may be a much bigger problem than most states expected. Getting new standardized tests doesn't eliminate problems, it turns out, and in some cases it may just prolong them.

Tennessee was a member of PARCC until the summer of 2014, when the Common Core backlash caused the state legislature to abruptly cancel its contract and pull out. Instead, the state crafted a five-year, $108 million contract with Measurement Inc. to administer the new TNReady exam.

But Measurement's attempts ended in catastrophe. It experienced a nearly system-wide outage of its online testing platform earlier this year, forcing an emergency switch to pencil-and-paper tests. In April, Tennessee simply canceled the testing contract entirely, sending the whole process back to the drawing board. The cancellation also forced the state to suspend testing for students in grades 3-8, meaning they will be unable to measure academic progress for those students this year. It had to sign an emergency $18 million contract with Pearson Education just to grade its outstanding tests.

Tennessee's difficulties aren't unique. Indiana, one of the few states to actually repeal Common Core, has had issues as well. It pulled out of PARCC in 2013, and instead opted to overhaul its old ISTEP standardized tests. The revised test generated hostility from educators, so this spring lawmakers voted to torpedo it completely and create a third, brand-new test from scratch that will be used starting in 2018. Indiana's vacillation has been expensive; while PARCC would have cost the state about $12 million per year, the revised ISTEP cost $24 million last year and $16 million for 2016 and 2017.

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