Ga. withdraws from standardized testing consortium

ATLANTA - State officials say Georgia is withdrawing from a consortium to create standardized tests aligned with Common Core curriculum.

State School Superintendent John Barge and Gov. Nathan Deal said Monday that Georgia is withdrawing from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers to ensure that Georgia officials maintain control of the state's academic standards and testing.

Officials say using a general assessment would keep state education officials from being able to tweak standards to serve Georgia students.

Officials say Georgia was one of 22 states to join the consortium with plans of developing math and English assessments by the 2014-15 school year.

Common Core curriculum has been a controversial topic with some lawmakers and educators saying it's a path to a federal takeover of state education systems.