Missouri’s Learning Standards and Assessments: Reflecting on the past; looking to the future

In 2010, Missouri joined most other states in adopting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and opted into the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and its associated assessments. However, Missouri’s participation in the CCSS was short-lived, as the state opted out and replaced the CCSS with new state-designed standards and eventually assessments. In total, Missouri’s decision to adopt and abandon CCSS resulted in the state using four different summative assessments in a five–year period. In this policy brief, we provide a brief history of Missouri’s standards and assessments and how these changes to large-scale assessment systems impacts state and local decisions and funding.