The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

Update on PARCC

Beginning on Monday, March 24, 2014, approximately 81,000 Massachusetts students - or about 8 percent of the state's total public school enrollment - will participate in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) field test. The field test will allow students to experience the new computer-based testing format (for those students who will take the online version instead of the paper-version) before the assessment counts. The field test will also enable us to determine the fairness, validity, and accuracy of test questions - which helps us to build the best test we can.

Districts and schools have been conducting practices this month to prepare for the field test administration. Pearson, the testing contractor for PARCC, as well as Department staff have been providing additional support to schools to answer their questions and help move smoothly through this try-out.

This spring's PARCC field test is comprised of the following two components:

• Performance-Based Assessments (March 24 - April 11, 2014)
  • Grades 3-9 and 11
  • Students taking the English Language Arts portion will participate in 3 sessions averaging between 1.5 and 2 hours per session. The average times are less in the lower grades.
  • Students taking the Mathematics portion will participate in 2 sessions averaging about 1.5 hours per session. The average times are less in the lower grades.
  
  
• End-of-Year Assessments (May 5 - June 6, 2014)
  • Grades 3-11
  • Students taking the English Language Arts or Mathematics portions will participate in 2 sessions each averaging about1.5 hours per session. The average times are less in the lower grades.

At the Board meeting on March 25, I will provide a further update on PARCC.