Maryland, Illinois, and 20 other states are currently in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) testing consortium. Led by Achieve, the consortium is developing standardized tests that it says are properly aligned to the Common Core state standards in mathematics and English/language arts.
The new tests in 22 states, which all students in grades 3 through high school will take, are expected to be given first in the 2014-2015 school year. But teachers and school districts today have questions about what those assessments will look like. PARCC has released a few sample items, but the consortium, with the help of Pearson, is starting to develop test items and determine how they should be scored.
View the live feed on Twitter, here.
In order to answer some questions, PARCC will host a series of Twitter town halls, starting on June 5 with Rhode Island Education Commissioner and prolific tweeter Deborah A. Gist (@deborahgist). Questions can be asked by using the hashtag #askPARCC with Commissioner Gist responding to tweets between 6 and 7 pm Eastern Time. Commissioner Gist is a member of the PARCC Governing Board.
Additional town halls this month will take place on Thursday, June 13, 6-7 pm ET (PARCC Mathematics, led by Doug Sovde, Director, PARCC Instructional Supports and Educator Engagement, Achieve) and on Thursday, June 20, 6-7 pm ET (PARCC English language/arts literacy, led by Bonnie Hain, Senior Advisor, English Language Arts and Literacy, Achieve).