Fourteen states and the District of Columbia announced on July 29 that they are committed to field testing the next-generation PARCC assessments in the upcoming 2013-14 school year, a key step in building a high-quality assessment system that will be rolled out broadly in schools during the following academic year.
PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) is a group of states working together to develop computer-based 21st-century tests that are aligned to the more rigorous Common Core State Standards. The new tests also will measure deeper-learning, critical-thinking, writing and problem-solving skills, which are essential to college and career success.
The states participating in the field tests are Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.
“We have a very strong core of states who are committed to PARCC for the long haul,” Massachusetts Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester told reporters during a conference call in which commissioners of education from several PARCC states announced the field testing.
Field testing will help PARCC create strong assessments with high-quality questions that are free of bias and challenge students working at all performance levels. Accommodations will also be employed and studied through the field test.
Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Deborah A. Gist said PARCC assessments would be tests worth taking. “Quality has been the key issue for us from the very beginning,” Gist said. “We weren’t interested in moving to another assessment unless there was going to be a tremendous focus on quality.”
Added Tennessee Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman, “These are assessments that are going to match the level of rigor of the Common Core State Standards.”
Not all students in a participating state take field tests. Generally just about 10 percent of students in tested grades and subjects will participate across PARCC states; most of those students will only take a portion of the tests. The PARCC field tests will not generate student scores. The PARCC field tests will be in administered in March-May 2014.
PARCC also announced progress on other fronts:
- Ten states conducted small-scale item tryouts with several thousand students in spring and summer 2013, including Arkansas, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York.
- PARCC, in partnership with its item development contractors, is on-track to complete its first phase of item development – construction and review of test items prior to field testing – by the end of August 2013.
- Hundreds of K-16 educators from across PARCC states are meeting in Orlando, Florida, this week to complete a review of PARCC items in preparation for construction of the field test.
