At the most recent PTA meeting we shared some information about the PARCC assessments. Below are the highlights of that presentation.
- Illinois approved new learning standards in 2010. The PARCC assessments are used to measure student progress on these standards. PARCC is replacing ISAT.
- ISAT will no longer be administered and there will be no way to compare scores between ISAT and PARCC.
- The PARCC assessments will have two components in 2014-2015. First will be a set of performance-based (PBA) tasks such as applying concepts to solve model real-world problems taking place March 2nd - March 18th. The second component will be an end-of-year assessment (EOY) administered April 27th - May 20th. The results will be combined with the performance-based assessment to produce a student’s summative assessment score.
- The PARCC assessments will will cover English/language arts and math. The tests align to the new Illinois State Learning Standards (based on the Common Core Standards).
- In English/language arts, the PARCC assessments will look much deeper at student writing abilities and critical-thinking skills, for example.
- In math, students will have to solve complex problems, show their work, and demonstrate how they solved the problem.
- With PARCC, the state is moving to more online testing however not all grades will test online. For 2014-15, grades 3 and 6 will test online in math and reading. Grades 4, 5, 7 & 8 will be using the paper version. After this year, we will evaluate adding additional grades for online testing.
- Sample test items and questions are available here: http://www.parcconline.org/samples/item-task-prototypes. This will give an idea of what the student testing experience will be like. Keep in mind, not all students will test online and some will have the paper version.
- Additional resources for parents can be found at: http://www.parcconline.org/for-parents
