Louisiana to Spend at Least $75M on Five Years of PARCC-ish LEAP 2025 Testing

The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) has contracted with Data Recognition Corporation (DRC) for the state’s PARCC-modeled LEAP 2025 assessment portfolio to the tune of $61.5M for five school years (2016-17 to 2020-21).

The complete DRC contract can be found here and here.

The DRC contract includes math and ELA assessments beginning in Kindergarten and continuing through the sophomore year of high school, with K-2 assessments being “formative,” and grades 3-8 and high school math and ELA assessments being  “diagnostic” (beginning of year), “interim,” and “summative” (end of year).

Testing designed to overtake the entire school year grades 3 through 8 and two years of high school– or, as LDOE glowingly describes it in the DRC contract:

The assessments developed through this RFP (Request for Proposal) will end duplicative testing and seamlessly align grades 3 through high school assessments with formative tools, to be used by districts at their…