Throughout many schools in Illinois, a new type of testing has become familiar to students. The PARCC (The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) Test has made its way to the top and will continue to challenge students of all ages to improve their testing skills.
The PARCC Test has grown since the previous 2013-2014 school year. Last year, the PARCC Test was introduced to Jacksonville High School for the first time. Students enrolled in classes such as Geometry and English became the first “guinea pigs” to try out the test. The PARCC Test, to many students, was considered advanced and difficult. However, the test has made many improvements since last year and has become even more challenging for this school year, encouraging schools to alter the information they are teaching in order to prepare their students for more demanding tests such as the PARCC Test.
As of this month, March 2015, students enrolled in Algebra II are required to take the PARCC Test. On March 2, students in this class took the first part of their PARCC Test. During this session, the students had to complete a non-calculator section first. In this section there were many multiple-choice questions which required previous knowledge of Algebra and challenged the students to rely on their own conclusions and thoughts instead of relying on their calculator. Some multiple-choice questions had more than one answer which allowed for the students to think about the question more. However, there was also a calculator section. In this section, students were mostly given application problems which required a great deal of thought and concentration. Many of these application problems had several parts to them which required students to use their answers and work from the previous part to continue on and answer the next part. Some included up to four separate parts within one application problem.
Each testing session takes up to 75-90 minutes long. Since this is a state required test, the rules required are strict and must be met by all students in Illinois. For example, students are not allowed to bring any type of technology, food, or drink into the testing room. Students are also required to use a #2 (non-mechanical) pencil. Lastly, students may only bring their own calculators if it is a TI-83 or TI-84. If a student does not own one of these calculators, then they will be provided one on the day of the test.
Students enrolled in Algebra II will be required to take another test. These testing dates vary for each class. They will be given similar problems including both multiple-choice and application.