2. A Strong Foundation:
The Common Core State Standards
• Nearly every state in the nation is working
individually and collectively to improve its academic
standards and assessments to ensure students
graduate with the knowledge and skills most
demanded by college and careers
• The Common Core State Standards in English
language arts/literacy and mathematics were created
by educators around the nation
2
3. 46 States + DC Have Adopted the
Common Core State Standards
*Minnesota adopted the CCSS in ELA/literacy only
4. Key Advances of the Common Core
ANCHORED IN COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS
5. What’s Next?
Common Assessments
• Common Core State Standards are
critical, but it is just the first step
• Common assessments aligned to the
Common Core will help ensure the new
standards truly reach every classroom
5
7. K-12 and Postsecondary Roles in PARCC
K-12 Educators & Education Leaders
•Educators will be involved throughout the development of the
PARCC assessments and related instructional and reporting tools to
help ensure the system provides the information and resources
educators most need
Postsecondary Faculty & Leaders
•Nearly 200 institutions and systems covering hundreds of campuses
across PARCC states have committed to help develop the high school
assessments and set the college-ready cut score that will indicate a
student is ready for credit-bearing courses
7
8. The PARCC Goals
• Create high-quality assessments
• Build a pathway to college and career readiness for
all students
• Support educators in the classroom
• Develop 21st century, technology-based assessments
• Advance accountability at all levels
8
9. Goal #1: Create High Quality
Assessments
Priority Purposes of PARCC Assessments:
–Determine whether students are college- and career-ready or on
track
–Assess the full range of the Common Core Standards, including
standards that are difficult to measure
–Measure the full range of student performance, including the
performance high and low performing students
–Provide data during the academic year to inform instruction,
interventions and professional development
–Provide data for accountability, including measures of growth
–Incorporate innovative approaches throughout the system
9
10. Goal #1: Create High Quality
Assessments
• To address the priority purposes, PARCC will develop an
assessment system comprised of four components. Each
component will computer-delivered and will leverage technology
to incorporate innovations.
– Two summative, required assessment components designed to
o Make “college- and career-readiness” and “on-track” determinations
o Measure the full range of standards and full performance continuum
o Provide data for accountability uses, including measures of growth
– Two non-summative, optional assessment components designed to
o Generate timely information for informing instruction, interventions, and
professional development during the school year
o An additional third non-summative component will assess students’ speaking
and listening skills
10
11. Goal #1: Create High Quality
Assessments
• Summative Assessment Components:
– Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) administered as close to the end of the
school year as possible. The ELA/literacy PBA will focus on writing effectively
when analyzing text. The mathematics PBA will focus on applying skills,
concepts, and understandings to solve multi-step problems requiring abstract
reasoning, precision, perseverance, and strategic use of tools
– End-of-Year Assessment (EOY) administered after approx. 90% of the school
year. The ELA/literacy EOY will focus on reading comprehension. The math EOY
will be comprised of innovative, machine-scorable items
• Non-Summative Assessment Components:
– Diagnostic Assessment designed to be an indicator of student knowledge and
skills so that instruction, supports and professional development can be
tailored to meet student needs
– Mid-Year Assessment comprised of performance-based items and tasks, with
an emphasis on hard-to-measure standards. After study, individual states may
consider including as a summative component
11
12. Goal #1: Create High Quality
Assessments
The PARCC assessments will allow us to make important claims
about students’ knowledge and skills.
•In English Language Arts/Literacy, whether students:
– Can Read and Comprehend Complex Literary and Informational Text
– Can Write Effectively When Analyzing Text
– Have attained overall proficiency in ELA/literacy
•In Mathematics, whether students:
– Have mastered knowledge and skills in highlighted domains (e.g.
domain of highest importance for a particular grade level – number/
fractions in grade 4; proportional reasoning and ratios in grade 6)
– Have attained overall proficiency in mathematics
12
13. PARCC Assessment Design
English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics, Grades 3-11
Optional Assessments/Flexible Administration
Diagnostic Assessment Mid-Year Assessment
Performance-Based End-of-Year
• Early indicator of student •Performance-based
Assessment (PBA) Assessment
knowledge and skills to •Emphasis on hard-to-
•Extended tasks •Innovative, computer-
inform instruction, supports, measure standards
•Applications of concepts and based items
and PD •Potentially summative
skills
ELA - Speaking And Listening
Assessment
•Locally scored
Summative, •Non-summative, required
Interim, optional
Required assessment
assessment
13
14. Goal #2: Build a Pathway to College and
Career Readiness for All Students
K-2 formative Targeted
Timely student achievement College
assessment interventions &
data showing students, readiness score
being supports:
parents and educators to identify who
developed, •12th-grade bridge
whether ALL students are on- is ready for
aligned to the courses
track to college and career college-level
PARCC • PD for educators
readiness coursework
system
SUCCESS IN
FIRST-YEAR,
CREDIT-BEARING,
POSTSECONDARY
COURSEWORK
ONGOING STUDENT SUPPORTS/INTERVENTIONS
14
15. Goal #3: Support Educators in the
Classroom
INSTRUCTIONAL TOOLS TO
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
SUPPORT IMPLEMENTATION
MODULES
K-12 Educator
TIMELY STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT EDUCATOR-LED TRAINING TO SUPPORT
DATA “PEER-TO-PEER” TRAINING
15
16. Goal #4: Develop 21st Century,
Technology-Based Assessments
PARCC’s assessment will be computer-based and leverage
technology in a range of ways:
•Item Development
– Develop innovative tasks that engage students in the assessment process
•Administration
– Reduce paperwork, increase security, reduce shipping/receiving & storage
– Increase access to and provision of accommodations for SWDs and ELLs
•Scoring
– Make scoring more efficient by combining human and automated
approaches
•Reporting
– Produce timely reports of students performance throughout the year to
inform instructional, interventions, and professional development
16
17. Goal #5: Advance Accountability
at All Levels
• PARCC assessments will be purposefully designed to
generate valid, reliable and timely data, including measures
of growth, for various accountability uses including:
– School and district effectiveness
– Educator effectiveness
– Student placement into college-credit bearing courses
– Comparisons with other state and international benchmarks
• PARCC assessments will be designed for other accountability
uses as states deem appropriate
17
19. PARCC’s Implementation Support &
Stakeholder Engagement
To support state efforts to implement and transition to the Common
Core and next generation assessments, PARCC will facilitate:
– Strategic planning and collective problem solving for the
implementation of CCSS and PARCC assessments
– Collaborative efforts to develop the highest priority instructional and
support tools
– Multi-state support to build leadership cadres of educators
– Multi-state support to engage the postsecondary community around
the design and use of the assessments
19
20. PARCC Timeline
SY 2012-13 SY 2013-14 SY 2014-15 Summer 2015
SY 2010-11 SY 2011-12
First year pilot/ Second year Set
Full
field testing pilot/field achievement
Launch and Development administration
and related testing and levels,
design phase begins of PARCC
research and related including
assessments
data collection research and college-ready
data collection performance
levels
20
21. Key Challenges for PARCC
Technical Challenges Implementation Policy Challenges
•Developing an Challenges • Student supports
interoperable technology • Estimating costs over and interventions
platform time, including long- • Accountability
•Transitioning to a term budgetary
planning • High school course
computer-based requirements
assessment system • Transitioning to the
new assessments at the • College admissions/
•Developing and
classroom level placement
implementing automated
scoring systems and • Ensuring long-term • Perceptions about
processes sustainability what these
assessments can do
•Identifying effective,
innovative item types
21
22. PARCC Highlights:
The Work is Underway
• Quarterly Governing Board meetings where major decisions
have been made around assessment design, procurement
schedule, committee structure and by-laws
• Consortium-wide and in-state meetings, including first two
Transition & Implementation Institute, each attended by
200 state and district leaders from over 20 states
• Release of final by-laws, Model Content Frameworks,
procurement schedule, and launch of PARCC website (
www.parcconline.org),
• Direct engagement with over 1,500 educators, K-12 and
postsecondary leaders and state and local officials in nearly
all 24 PARCC states.
23. The Partnership for Assessment of
Readiness for College and Careers
November 2011
www.PARCConline.org
Notes de l'éditeur
TALKING POINTS: 46 States and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core State Standards Most states are committed to implementing the standards by the 2014-2015 school year
TALKING POINTS MATHEMATICS Focus, coherence and clarity Focus on key topics at each grade level Coherent progressions across grade levels Addresses long-heard criticism of mile-wide, inch-deep math curricula Procedural fluency and understanding of concepts and skills Content standards require both conceptual understanding and procedural fluency Mathematical proficiencies Mathematical proficiencies students should develop (e.g., abstract reasoning, modeling, precision, perseverance, strategic use of tools, making arguments) Using mathematics to understand a problem – even in new or unfamiliar contexts Organized around conceptual categories Promotes various approaches to high school curriculum Standards are organized into conceptual categories and models of traditional, integrated, & advanced courses ELA/LITERACY Reading Balance of literature and informational texts Focus on text complexity and what students read Writing Emphasis on argument and informative/explanatory writing Writing about sources (evidence) – answer questions that require students to have read the text Speaking and Listening Inclusion of formal and informal talk Literacy standards for history, science and technical subjects Promotes the idea that teaching literacy skills is not just the job of the English teacher Complements rather than replaces those subjects BOTH CONTENT AREAS Anchored in college and career readiness Explicitly define the knowledge and skills that students must master to be college and career ready by the end of high school, and the knowledge and skills in each grade that build towards that goal
TALKING POINTS While the Common Core State Standards are a critical first step, they alone will not bring about the instructional changes necessary to improve student achievement and attainment. Creating common assessments grounded in common standards is the logical next step and will ensure the new standards truly reach every classroom I think we will all agree that the current system is broken. Every state develops their own assessments and for that reasons our nation’s assessments: Are of varying quality and rigor and rarely point toward College- and Career-Readiness. Do not provide meaningful, real-time data for our educators, parents and policymakers Cannot be compared from state to state, ensuring that students in Mass. And Miss. are receiving the same foundation Next generation assessments will: Provide a more complete picture of student performance against college- and career-ready expectations Use current and future technologies to provide a meaningful assessment and useful data Mitigate Challenges associated with mobility—which is a major challenge in education U.S Department of Education set aside $350 million of Race to the Top funding for awards to consortia of states to design and develop common K-12 assessment systems aligned to common, college- and career-ready standards. In Sept. 2010, the U.S. Department of Education awarded grants to the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC)
TALKING POINTS PARCC is an alliance of 24 states, educating nearly 25 million students, that are working together to develop a common set of K-12 assessments in English and math anchored in what it takes to be ready for college and careers. PARCC is led by 17 governing board states (and D.C.) represented in Dark Blue. CLICK: The chair of the governing board is Mitchell Chester, Education Commissioner of Massachusetts, and the state of Florida is serving as its fiscal agent. CLICK: Achieve is the project manager for PARCC, essentially serving as the staff for the consortium and coordinating the work. Collectively the PARCC states educate nearly 25 million students. Governing States will pilot and field test the assessment system components over the next three years and administer the new assessment system during the 2014-15 school year. Governing States will use the results from the PARCC assessments in their state accountability systems The chief state school officers of the Governing States serve on the PARCC Governing Board and make decisions on behalf of the Partnership on major policies and operational procedures Participating States (light blue) provide staff to serve on PARCC’s design committees, working groups, and other task forces established by the Governing Board to conduct the work necessary to design and develop PARCC’s proposed assessment system. By 2014–15, any state that remains in PARCC must commit to statewide implementation and administration of the Partnership’s assessment system Any PARCC Participating State prepared to make the commitments and take on the responsibilities of a Governing State can become one NOTES Governing Board: Comprised of K-12 chiefs from Governing Board States Technical Advisory Committee: Comprised of state/national assessment experts Leadership Team: Comprised of delegates of K-12 chiefs from Governing Board States (e.g., Assoc. Supt for Curriculum, Assessment and/or Instruction) ACCR: Comprised of national and state postsecondary leaders Operational Working Groups: Comprised of national, state, and local experts and leaders in their specific areas of expertise
TALKING POINTS This is a state-led initiative, but the input of those in the field will be crucial. That includes both K-12 teachers and leaders, as well as faculty and leaders from the higher education community. K-12: We have already engaged more than 1,500 educators directly in the process. Some will sit on our content teams and committees that will develop and implement the assessments. Many have provided input through surveys or have simply engaged us in a conversation. We are thrilled to have this involvement and it will only grow as we move forward. This will include the development of K-12 educator cadres that will allow educators the opportunity to learn about PARCC up close and personally, test the instructional tools described above, and get the information they need to educate their peers on PARCC and its related resources. POSTSECONDARY : Our postsecondary community will be vital partners in the creation and implementation of these next generation assessments. This is crucial because the whole point is to make sure we are assessing students for college- and career-readiness. So the postsecondary community will be an important partner in this
For those that have been following the development of PARCC, the Governing Board did make some refinements to the design based on the input from the PARCC states. As with PARCC’s initial design, there will be four components to the PARCC system. PARCC will develop all four components – the first two will be available for all PARCC states and districts to use and administer flexibly. Summative assessment components will: Measure the full range of the CCSS and the full range of student performance, including low- and high-performing students Include achievement levels that signify whether students are “college- and career-ready” by the end of high school and on-track in earlier grades Produce data that can be used to make a variety of accountability determinations, including measures of student growth The formative components will be designed to generate timely information during the academic year that can inform instruction, professional development, and supports and interventions for students. In ELA/literacy, there will be an additional formative component that will assess the speaking and listening standards in the Common Core.
Overview of two summative assessment components: Performance-Based Assessment: Administered as close to the end of the year as possible Will include essays and other high-quality, complex items. End-of-Year: Computer-scored, but would be far from the traditional “multiple choice” tests. There will be multistep problems and tasks that students must complete in order to find the correct answer. Overview of formative components: Early Assessments: Designed to be administered close to the beginning of the year. Will provide an early snapshot of achievement knowledge and skills so that educators can tailor instruction, supports for students, and professional development to meet students’ needs. Mid-Year Assessment: Designed to be administered near the middle of the school year. Performance-based Will focus on hard-to-measure standards in the CCSS Teachers could score this assessment to get quick feedback on student learning relative to the CCSS. These components are: are formative assessments are developed by PARCC with its grant funds are available to all PARCC states and their local districts are intended to be administered early and midway through the school year however, allow for flexible administration-- they can be administered at locally determined times, including at the discretion of the classroom teacher can be scored quickly -- some can be computer administered and scored, others can be scored by the classroom teacher -- so that teachers can have timely information that can inform instruction for their students
Based on the priority purposes for the assessments, the PARCC states are designing the assessments so that they enable us to make the following claims about students: ELA/literacy: Students can read and comprehend complex literary and informational text Can write effectively to sources Have attained overall proficiency in ELA/literacy – e.g. whether they are “college- and career-ready” in ELA/literacy by the end of high school or are on-track in earlier grades. Mathematics: Students have mastered the knowledge & skills in highlighted domains in mathematics – these are the domains of highest importance for a particular grade level. For example, in grade 4, whether students have mastered numbers and fractions. The highlighted domain varies from grade-level to grade-level, depending on the area of focus emphasized in the CCSS. Have attained overall proficiency in mathematics – e.g. whether they are “college- and career-ready” in mathematics by the end of high school or are on-track in earlier grades.
TALKING POINTS Graphic depiction of the assessment system . The system includes a suite of assessments and tools that, taken together, provide a more complete picture of student mastery of standards and progress throughout the year than is currently available on state assessments. Considerations Leading to 2 optional assessments: The cost of the assessments Flexibility on when to administer the optional assessments The amount of testing time needed to administer the assessments Possible disruption to school schedules caused by through-course assessment preparation and administration Constraints the distributed design might have on the flexibility of state and local educators to sequence instruction of the CCSS and to implement their own benchmark and formative assessment initiatives The PARCC assessment system will: Reflect the sophisticated knowledge and skills found in the English and math Common Core State Standards Include a mix of item types (e.g., short answer, richer multiple choice, longer open response, performance-based) Make significant use of technology Include testing at key points throughout the year to give teachers, parents and students better information about whether students are on track or need additional support in particular areas Taken together, the PARCC assessment components comprise a comprehensive system of assessments that will provide timely information to teachers throughout the year, and provide students with meaningful information about their progress toward college and career readiness
The PARCC assessment system will be aligned to the college- and career-ready, Common Core State Standards, and is being designed to challenge students, help identify when they’re not meeting the standards, and provide targeted instruction, supports and interventions to help them succeed Students who score proficient on the assessments will know they are on track for the next steps in their education, creating a more meaningful target In high school, results will send an early signal about whether students are ready for entry-level, non-remedial courses at higher education institutions in all 24 PARCC states Students who are identified as not being on track, or who do not meet the college readiness score, will receive targeted supports and interventions Higher education partners in PARCC—nearly 200 institutions and systems covering over 8,50 campuses across the country—have committed to help develop the high school assessments and set the college-ready cut score that will be used to place incoming freshman in credit-bearing college courses
TALKING POINTS The PARCC assessments will be built with the K-12 educator in mind around four different areas. (CLICK) INSTRUCTIONAL TOOLS TO SUPPORT IMPLEMENTATION Model Content frameworks Sample assessment tasks Model instructional units PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MODULES Common Assessment 101-103: PD focused on the implementation the new assessments Common Assessment 201-204: PD focused on how to interpret and use the assessment results TIMELY STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT DATA Aligned performance-based assessments given throughout year Data reports will be available, designed with teacher use in mind EDUCATOR-LED TRAINING TO SUPPORT “PEER-TO-PEER” TRAINING Training for cadres of K-12 educators around the instructional tools AND around training their peers to use the instructional tools
Strategic planning and collective problem solving PARCC will convene two multi-state transition and implementation strategic planning institutes per year where state leadership teams composed of state and district leaders will: Receive support to develop and execute strategic transition and implementation plans, Focus on common policy decisions, challenges, and milestones, and Monitor progress against their strategic plans In between the convenings, there will be regularly-held webinars on specific high-priority topics to help all states continue to make progress towards implementation Collaborative efforts to develop the highest priority instructional tools: PARCC is developing a robust set of high-quality instructional tools to help the education community transition to the next generation assessment system. Content Frameworks will help identify priority big ideas in the standards that can help determine the focus for the various assessment components. While one intended audience is district-level curriculum supervisors and state content experts, the frameworks will also be easily accessible to teachers Model instructional units aligned to the CCSS and PARCC content frameworks, and anchored around a PARCC assessment component Sample assessment tasks that will mirror the tasks that will be included on the PARCC assessments Professional development modules to help teachers, counselors, school leaders and school site testing coordinators understand the PARCC system College-ready tools, such as model 12th-grade bridge courses for students who don’t score college ready on the high school assessments. PARCC also has a few tools planned to support the new assessment system including: Diagnostic Tools in Reading, Writing, Math: a computer-adaptive tool to identify students’ reading level and supply suggestions for appropriate texts for students to read to stretch their reading and put them on a growth path. K-2 Assessments in ELA/Literacy and Mathematics, which are optional for states to administer Partnership Resource Center, which will house the model content frameworks’ sample assessment tasks; released items with item data, student work, and rubrics Multi-state support to build leadership cadres of educators who are deeply engaged in the use of those tools, the CCSS and the PARCC assessments. Multi-state support to engage the postsecondary community around the design and use of the assessments
TALKING POINTS Obviously this is a huge change for our consortium states and there certainly will be challenges. We really see these in three areas. Technical Challenges: Addressing the technology gaps for the implementation, administration and scoring of these next generation assessments. Implementation Challenges: We must make sure our states and districts are ready to transition to these new assessments by 2014-2015 and that they can sustain. Obviously, the biggest concern of all states right now is the budget. That won’t change in the next few years. Policy Challenges: These assessments will require some, if not all of our states to review their policies and make adjustments. Through outreach and support we must make sure there are no “surprises.” We will collaborate and innovate to overcome these challenges. While these are real challenge, they can be overcome.