By Jaime Sarrio - THE TENNESSEAN -

One year after Tennessee introduced standardized tests that promised more rigor for public school students, the state will embark on another overhaul, this time on a much larger scale.

Tennessee and 25 other states teamed up to develop English and math tests for public school students in third grade through high school. Collectively, the states will receive a $170 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education for the effort.

The new exams will be administered by computer during the 2014-15 school year, going beyond the traditional fill-in-the-bubble approach and measuring whether students grasp complex ideas. For the first time, thousands of students across the country will be learning the same thing at the same time and using the same measurement.

It's a huge step toward a national test and curriculum, shunned in the past in favor of states' rights.

"This is the closest we've come to national standards and national assessment, but it is also the farthest we've ever gotten because of limited federal involvement and very strong state leadership," said Mike Cohen, president of Achieve, an educational nonprofit helping to manage the partnership among the 26 states debuting the new test.

Ten plus the District of Columbia emerged as leaders in the effort, giving those state leaders more influence on exam development: Tennessee, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island.

Williamson County parent Jennifer McVey, who has two children at Nolensville Elementary, likes the idea of knowing how her children stack up to those in other states.

"I don't want someone to be able to say because they live somewhere else that they had better education than my child," she said.

The states will work together to develop the new tests, which will go beyond the "bubble" exams used today, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said.

"For the first time, many teachers will have the assessment they've longed for, tests for critical thinking skills and complex student learning, not just fill-in-the-bubble tests for basic skills," he said.

The assessments will measure knowledge gained from research projects, classroom speaking and digital media.

"This will change the way students are taught, and it will change the way we support teachers," Duncan said.

As it stands, parents and educators use the National Assessment of Educational Progress to compare students from state to state. But those tests are given only to a small sample in each state. They are not administered annually, and they're not based on a shared curriculum.

Other states cooperate

In addition to the group of statesTennessee is working with, there is another group of 31 states also getting federal money to develop a new assessment.

All total, 44 states and the District of Columbia, or about 85 percent of students in the country, will be using one of the two new assessments by 2014. States not involved in either partnership will have the chance to use one of the tests after they are developed, if they so choose.

The test will replace the English and math portion of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program. Nationwide social studies and science exams probably will follow in the years to come.

The incentive for states to team up to develop the new tests is financial and practical, said Dan Long, executive director of the Tennessee Department of Education's Office of Assessment.

Dividing the cost of test development makes it more affordable to states. It also makes sense because states were beginning to set similar goals for student learning.

In July, the state approved the national common core standards, on which the new curriculum is based. But the state is still in the middle of a major overhaul of public schools, including revamping the curriculum and the tests.

The new curriculum and tests won't be a major deviation from what's already in place, Long said. And the state will transition the test year by year so that student growth can still be compared.

"This is more of a tweak," he said. "And we have time to get this right."