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A recently passed California bill stipulating that this year’s student test scores will not be released has drawn a rebuke from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

California is switching to a new standardized test beginning this spring that will align with the Common Core Learning Standards. At the same time, the test will for the first time be given on computers. Negotiations between the governor’s office, state teacher unions and the state superintendent of public instruction yielded an agreement not to count — or even release the results of — this year’s tests, as they are considered a work in progress.

Since Los Angeles is using year-to-year comparisons of scores to evaluate teachers, the inability to use 2013 scores means such comparisons will not happen this school year, which got Duncan’s attention. “Letting an entire school year pass for millions of students without sharing information on their schools’ performance with them and their families is the wrong way to go about this transition,” he said.

But Duncan later stepped back from a threat to withhold federal funding, which in the case of the Los Angeles Unified School District totals some $600 million, according to the district. He called cutting funding a “last resort” and touted the need to be “flexible.”

The bill is now on the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown, who has already expressed his support for it.

Los Angeles Times, Sept. 4, 9 & 15
Sacramento Bee, Sept. 11
Sierra Sun Times, Sept. 13