Billions at stake as testing profiteers collide

Pearson is the "800-pound gorilla" in state testing. -- Barry Topol, the managing partner for the Assessment Solutions Group,

EdWeek reports:

Two of the biggest names in testing are locked in a dispute over one of the most coveted jewels in the K-12 market: the right to oversee a suite of assessments in California, a state with about one-eighth of the country's students.

$1.2 Billion Market

California is one of 18 states giving tests created by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, a group of states that has designed exams aligned with the common-core standards.

Smarter Balanced is leaving the administration of those tests to individual states. California asked vendors to bid to administer its common-core exams in English/language arts and math, and for testing work in science and other subjects over the next three academic years, starting in 2015-16.

The overall market for summative assessment—typically defined as tests designed to measure student academic progress at the end of a school year or a course—stands at about $1.2 billion a year, said  a Danville, Calif.-based company that consults with states on testing. So a California contract potentially worth up to $80 million a year represents a big piece of that pie.