Missouri has appealed last month's ruling that payments to the "Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium," or SBAC, are unconstitutional.
Solicitor General James Layton filed the notice of appeal Tuesday with the court of appeals western district in Kansas City, on behalf of the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which announced the appeal Wednesday.
"This ruling has potential implications for other state departments that work with other states to share resources and share costs for providing services to the public," the department said in a news release. "These state agreements should continue for the mutual benefit of all citizens."
Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green ruled two weeks ago that Missouri government cannot make any payments to the California-based SBAC because it is "an unlawful interstate compact to which the U.S. Congress has never consented."
The ruling was seen as a victory for opponents of the Common Core education standards, who challenged the financial process used to coordinate the standards among the states.
"Missouri's participation in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium as a member is unlawful under state and federal law," Green also wrote in a two-page judgment issued Feb. 24.
Three Missouri taxpayers - Fred N. Sauer, Anne Gassel and Gretchen Logue - said in their original, 31-page lawsuit filed last September that they wanted to, among other things, "challenge expenditures of public funds and the potential increased levy in taxes that may result if this controversy is not resolved."
In DESE's news release, the department noted: "The ruling does not affect spring assessments, as the state has already finalized testing plans for Spring 2015. Independent of Missouri's membership in the SBAC, the state Board of Education and the department support high quality assessments aligned with the Missouri Learning Standards."
Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven said in the release: "This year's grade-level tests raise expectations for our students, and we know our kids can meet those expectations.
"If we are going to be a top state for education, we need to believe that all students can learn and fulfill their potential."
The Common Core education standards have been pushed by education officials and governors around the nation since 2009 as a response to years of complaints that it's been hard to compare test scores and students' knowledge from one state to another.
The standards are designed to be the same for all the states that adopt them, to help show students' common knowledge from one state to another.
Green's order found SBAC's "existence and operation violate the Compact Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 10, Clause 3, as well as numerous federal statutes; and that Missouri's participation in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium as a member is unlawful under state and federal law."
Green then declared "any putative obligations, including the obligation to pay membership fees, of the State of Missouri" to the SBAC "are illegal and void."