Jason Stanford, long-time observer of politics in Texas, explains here how Pearson lost its nearly $500 million contract, retaining only a $60 million sliver.

After decades of having a lock on the state testing contract, the pushback against high-stakes standardized testing became overwhelming. Local school boards passed resolutions against it; parents organized protests against it. The legislature even passed a law barring lobbyists “from serving on state boards and commissions dealing with accountability.” The target was Sandy Kress, architect of NCLB and Pearson lobbyist.

Once the political aura surrounding Kress and Pearson turned sour, people started questioning the pedagogical theory that measuring the children against the wall makes them taller. Texas rolled out the a new test a few years ago to make all the kids “college and career ready,” huge cuts to state education funding notwithstanding. Since then, test scores have been flat and have largely correlated to parents’ income and differences in school funding.

The legislature saw no problem in cutting school funding by more than $5 billion while awarding Pearson a contract for nearly $500 million. It saw no problem in demanding higher test scores while removing funding. But the public got fed up. It is, says Stanford, the “end of an error.”