PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) is the new state testing in Illinois for K-12. It was created because parents, educators, and employers wanted an assessment that measured the students’ ability to communicate clearly, think critically, and solve problems. This means that most parts of the tests are not fill in the bubble. Students will have to know how to do the problems and explain how they got the answer for math questions. For the English portion, students will have to write.
I have read both of the links that the teachers were emailed earlier this month and found that PARCC was just recently started in 2014 in field testing as a “practice run.” During the testing, two thirds of the students prefered the online tests to the paper and pencil version. I’m sure many students at JHS would agree that the English tests they took online this spring were much easier versus the math test that was with paper and pencil. The link also stated, “Results from the field test survey show that the majority of educators indicated that the supporting materials should be clearer but that preparation for administration was possible within given time constraints.”
I took both Algebra II and English 11 PARCC tests. There was sufficient amount of time to complete the tasks asked of students in both tests, although I feel like the Algebra test should have been better worded so test takers could understand what was being asked of them. Taking the English test online gave resources that were helpful throughout the test, and I believe if all the tests were taken online, scores would be better, students would be less stressed, and teachers would not have to struggle with all the papers.
Although PARCC testing has its kinks that it is working out, it has the potential to become a decent test that is easy to handle for both the staff and students.