By Bill Dries - The Daily News -

Tennessee is one of 26 states sharing a pool of Race to the Top federal funding to come up with a common test to better grade student achievement and readiness for college.

The $170 million announced this week in Washington is for a program called Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC).

The 26 states educate 60 percent of the kindergarten through 12th grade students in the country.

Tennessee recently raised its standards to more accurately reflect national education standards. The first results of the raising of the standards are about to go home with students. Gov. Phil Bredesen has said those results will be lower than the old standards, which he criticized as being too weak.

“This will help us reach our fundamental goal of increasing the rate at which students graduate from high school prepared for success in college and the workplace,” Bredesen said of the new Race to the Top initiative.

With the RTTT funding, Tennessee will be one of the 11 governing states in developing a better test to go with the higher standards. The computer-based assessment also would be given closer to when students learn the material instead of at the end of a school year.

Tennessee was one of the first two states awarded RTTT funding for state efforts. The $500 million is coming to the state over several years.

More than 200 colleges and universities have signed on in Tennessee and other PARCC states to develop the assessments.

– Bill Dries