A Third Consortia Emerging in Common Core State (sic) Standards

Another private organization jumps into the public/private partnership to take over public school educational delivery/education:

From Reuters.com:

New ACT Assessment System to be Named ACT Aspire^(TM)
 System Will Better Connect Assessment to Teaching and Learning

IOWA CITY, Iowa-ACT, Inc., the nonprofit leader in college and career readiness assessment, today announced new details about its upcoming "next generation" assessment system. The new program, which will span elementary grades through high school, will be called ACT Aspire.

Development of ACT Aspire was initially announced in July and is ongoing. The goal of the system will be to provide educators, parents and students with the insights they need to help students get and stay on track for college and career readiness starting early in their academic careers by better connecting assessment, teaching and learning.

"We have drawn on our decades of experience and data to create a breakthrough assessment system designed to help students stay on target to reach their full potential throughout their educational journey," said Jon Erickson, ACT's president of education.  "ACT Aspire is the first digital, longitudinal assessment system that will provide the actionable information students, parents and educators need to measure and improve student performance from early elementary to high school."

"ACT Aspire is the first product that will embody ACT's new vision and strategic direction," said Jon Whitmore, ACT's chief executive officer. "As students today require more effective tools to compete, ACT is the organization that is best positioned to guide students to achieve success from kindergarten through career."

ACT is an independent, nonprofit organization with a 53-year history of generating data-driven assessments and research. Headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, and with offices throughout the world, ACT is trusted for its continual development of next-generation assessments that determine college and career readiness and provide the most advanced measure of workplace skills. To learn more about ACT, go to www.act.org.

Contact:
Ed Colby, ACT Public Relations
319.337.1147; ed.colby@act.org

Read more here.

It's just another consortia joining SBAC and PARCC.  The wealth needs to be spread around.  It won't mean a thing for educational improvement.  It's just another money making venture.  Will your state be moving to ACT?