The Echo

(C&E 1st actually started this post before the Christmas Holiday)

And the winner is ... American Institutes for Research!

According to today's News Journal AIR will provide the replacement assessment for the DSTP.  We, at C&E 1st, are doing bit of celebrating!  It has long been speculated that the DCAS would come from Northwest Education Association, since DOE had to re-bid the assessment following lawsuits filed over the summer by both AIR and NWEA.  NWEA already had a substantial footprint in Delaware as the provider of the Measures of Academic Performance Assessment, utilized here in Christina, and in other districts throughout the state.

As far as C&;E 1st is concerned, NWEA has always warranted a bit of extra scrutiny due it's relationship with former Christina Superintendent Joe Wise, a NWEA board member.  We've made it clear from Day 1, that it is our opinion that both Christina and Delaware need to move boldly in a new direction. Perhaps, DOE is laying the groundwork. 

We can always be hopeful. 

And when praise is due, we offer it:  DOE, nice job.  AIR appears to be a solid company with many proven successes, run by a board of post-secondary education visionaries from leading Universities across the nation.