Dive Brief:

• Arizona's new superintendent of public instruction, Diane Douglas, decried the state's new Common Core-aligned exam, and the standards themselves, in a Wednesday state of education presentation.
• Douglas wants lawmakers to abandon the exam, if not the standards all together, because it was only adopted in November and she feels an implementation that short is unfair to students. Additionally, she referred to the test as "unproven" and "put together within weeks."
• Furthermore, Douglas said that changes made to standards every seven to 10 years are too frequent, leaving districts strapped for cash and treating students as "guinea pigs."

Dive Insight:

Douglas cited the Arizona's No. 47 position in Education Week's annual rankings in her arguments against the test and its associated standards. State Rep. Lisa Otondo, who sits on Arizona's House Education Committee, wasn't sold on abandoning the new exam, though. She called instead on new Gov. Doug Ducey's administration to give more funding to education if they want to improve schools.

It could also be argued that abandoning the Common Core at this point, five years after the state adopted the standards in 2010, would be a larger disservice to students and teachers, who would suffer from having to adjust to whatever standards were selected as a replacement.