Challenging the Standardized Testing status quo: getting to know PARCC

Who is PARCC?

The story of the PARCC assessment consortium begins with the U.S. Department of Education announcing a $4.35 billion competition called Race to the Top in 2009. While the majority of the Race to the Top funds was earmarked for a state competition pool, $350 million of the funds were set aside for awards to consortia of states to design and develop common K-12 assessment systems aligned to common, college- and career-ready standards in English and mathematics.

Throughout the latter half of 2009 and the first half of 2010, states began coming together around shared goals for a next-generation assessment system. In September 2010, the U.S. Department of Education awarded grants to PARCC and one other state-led consortium, SMARTER BALANCED Assessment Consortium (SBAC), to design assessment systems that meet the dual needs of instructional improvement and accountability.

Specifically, the states that make up the PARCC consortium are committed to developing an assessment system that will yield significant advantages for educators, state policy makers, and most of all, parents and students. The assessment system will include both summative and formative assessments in mathematics and English Language Arts/literacy to provide critical information on students’ progress throughout the year. In addition, the assessments will utilize a range of innovative item types and performance-based tasks that will require students to apply their knowledge, rather than just recall it. PARCC assessments will also be computer based in order to maximize technology and deliver faster turnaround of student results. States in PARCC will adopt common performance standards that will allow policy makers to compare results within and across states to identify pockets of innovation and achievement. Finally, the PARCC assessments will be anchored in college and career readiness so all graduating students are fully prepared for their next steps.

Common Core State Standards and PARCC

Backing up, one can’t understand the PARCC assessments without understanding the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which currently have been adopted by 45 states and Washington DC.  The CCSS in Mathematics and English Language Arts/Literacy for History/Social Studies, Science and the Technical Subjects call on students to have not only solid content knowledge but also the skills to apply their knowledge in ways demanded by colleges, careers and citizenship in the 21st century. The new standards are anchored in college and career readiness, benchmarked against the expectations of high-performing countries, and developed by states for states.  Measuring the full range of the CCSS requires new kinds of tests — tests that measure what matters for students’ futures. Moving to such an assessment system will require re-imagining assessments as we know them.

PARCC and postsecondary readiness

One of the most exciting innovations in the PARCC assessment system is that it will create a more meaningful target for students. Students who score “proficient” on the assessments will know they are on track for the next steps in their education in a way rarely possible with current state tests. In high school, students will receive an early signal about whether they are fully prepared for entry-level, non-remedial courses at postsecondary institutions across PARCC states. Tests given in the earlier grades will be aligned to this goal of college and career readiness and will let students know if they are on track to graduating college and career ready.

Postsecondary partners in PARCC — more than 200 institutions and systems covering hundreds of two- and four-year campuses across the country — will help develop the high school assessments and ensure the “college-ready” determination is aligned with the expectations for first-year, credit-bearing college courses in math and English. And, perhaps most importantly, targeted intervention and supports will be created so that students can fill in missing gaps in their readiness while they are still in high school, easing the transition from high school to postsecondary education for many.

What about the teachers?

Teachers in PARCC states also stand to gain from the new assessment system in important ways.  First, the PARCC assessments have the ability to provide data to teachers about students’ progress shortly after students complete each formative and summative test, providing actionable information that teachers can use to adjust instruction and better support their students in a targeted manner throughout the year.

In addition, the PARCC assessments will also include a range of item types, such as innovative constructed response, extended performance tasks, and selected response, to fully assess students’ mastery of the Common Core State Standards. These authentic item types will tap into students’ ability to both demonstrate and apply their knowledge and skills in ways most large-scale assessments cannot today, giving educators more flexibility and creativity in how they deliver instruction aligned to the assessments.

To help teachers more fully understand the Common Core and PARCC assessments, and how they can be leveraged to improve instruction, PARCC will offer supplemental, educator-focused resources.  Among these are Professional Development Modules that will guide teachers in how PARCC-generated data can be used to inform instruction; Model Content Frameworks in English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics that will serve as a bridge between the new standards and assessments; and Educator Leader Cadres, which will give teachers the opportunity to engage in an in-depth study of the CCSS, the PARCC assessment system, and strategies for adapting current curricular and instructional practices to ensure alignment with the Common Core with their peers from other PARCC states. 

The bottom line

There are a lot of preconceived notions about standardized testing out there today, most of them negative. The PARCC states are not only aware of the current status quo but are strongly committed to developing a new assessment system that challenges that very status quo. The PARCC assessments are being developed with the explicit goal of advancing testing into the next generation, and will leverage new technologies, utilize new innovations in item development, and build a system that works for educators, students, parents, and policy makers alike.