This month, brand new Common Core-aligned tests will be making their debut in some states, and selected students will find themselves taking these tests online.

Across the country, 30,000 middle and high school students will be taking these math and English-language arts tests, and “millions more students in grades 3-11 will take such tests later in the winter and next spring,” according to an article on EducationWeek.org.

“After four years of controversy surrounding the federally funded tests from two multistate consortia, the first administration is a small-scale affair,” the article said. “Only one of the consortia—the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC—is giving tests this fall, and only to a fraction of its students.”

According to the article, “tests created by the other group, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, won't be given until the spring.”

“The two groups of states used $360 million in U.S. Department of Education Race to the Top money to design the assessments tied to the Common Core State Standards,” the article said. “Those standards, released in 2010, are the product of an initiative led by groups representing the nation's state governors and schools chiefs.”

The students who are currently taking the PARCC tests, the article said, “are on ‘block’ schedules, in which courses cover an entire year's study in one semester. The fall testing period includes students in six states: Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, and Rhode Island. Students on traditional schedules will take the PARCC exams during second semester.”

“Altogether, more than 5 million students are expected to take the PARCC tests in nine states and the District of Columbia in 2014-15,” said EducationWeek.

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Article by Kassondra Granata, Education World Contributor