A Publication of the
Madison Public
Schools Office of
Curriculum and
Instruction
July 2015
PARCC Educator Leader Cadre Meets
Hundreds of teachers and administrators from across the PARCC consortium met in Arlington,
VA from July 20-22 for the annual PARCC Educator Leader Cadre (ELC) national convening.
Madison’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction Matthew Mingle was among the
representatives from New Jersey in attendance.
The state ELCs are responsible for helping schools and districts prepare for PARCC
assessments, interfacing with the state departments of education, and providing critical
feedback from the field to PARCC to continually improve the student experience with the
assessments.
A Walk in the PARCC
aims to provide all
those with an interest in
the Madison Public
Schools with the latest
information about the
Common Core State
Standards and PARCC
assessments.
The New Jersey ELC consists of teachers, principals, district administrators,
higher education faculty and administrators, representatives from NJEA, and
representatives from the NJ Department of Education.
Upon Mr. Mingle’s return, meetings were scheduled with district leaders to discuss the PARCC
score reports and how to best prepare teachers and the community for them, the availability
of diagnostic assessments for 2015-16, and other pertinent teaching and learning issues.
Much more information will be coming through this newsletter when the school year begins.
How Standardized Assessments are Scored
Masthead Design:
Dani Bratton
Madison High School Teacher
National Public Radio (NPR) recently aired a story about how standardized tests are scored.
You can find the 7 minute broadcast at
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/07/08/420559529/unveiling-how-standardized-testsare-scored.
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PARCC Addresses Bias and Sensitivity Issues
In April 2015, PARCC brought together K-12 teachers, administrators and higher education
personnel to review draft PARCC questions for possible bias and insensitivity. Debbie
Sternecky, a teacher at Naperville North High School in Naperville, Illinois, was one of the
teachers who participated. The following account is her story about the experience.
During our first meeting we were provided with a brief training session about the types of
questions which constitute bias and sensitivity issues. These included questions which could
stereotype groups of people based on “gender, race, ethnicity, language, religion,
socioeconomic status, disability or geographic location.”
Additionally, our team was tasked with weeding out “any reference or language in an item
that might cause a student to have an emotional reaction during the test administration
[preventing] a student from being able to accurately demonstrate ability.” It was noted that
this could include reactions that were both positive and negative; emotionally charged
questions in a test could affect the students’ performance and should therefore be avoided.
Some of the obvious topics to flag included drug use and religion, as they might be likely to
cause emotional reactions. However, some topics on the list were less obvious to me, for
example, September 11, and negative descriptions of physical appearance. There were also
very specific topics that we were told should not be the main focus of a passage, such as
certain aspects of owls and eagles (as these are spiritual animals for many Native Americans).
The procedure for reviewing the questions was fascinating. We were divided into small groups
of about eight people from different regions of the country. Each of us was provided a copy of
the PARCC Fairness Guidelines, guiding questions, and a computer and then directed to review
questions from a particular grade. We independently read questions and marked each
“approve,” “approve with changes,” or “reject.” Once everyone from the group had reviewed
the assigned questions, we went through each question. We would then discuss the concerns
and decide as a group whether to accept, change, or reject the question. The conversations
were fascinating. The broad regional representation of the group enabled people from one
geographical area to highlight issues that others wouldn’t have thought of. For example,
names used in a test question might be the name of a store or product somewhere in the
country, and that double meaning could be confusing to a student.
The experience was very powerful for me and I’m sure, as a result, I am better at writing
assessments which are free from bias and sensitivity issues. I hope also, that in some small
way, I have helped make the test more accessible to students.
Office of Curriculum and
Instruction
Madison Public Schools
359 Woodland Road
Madison. NJ 07940
www.madisonpublicschools.org
@MadisonNJPS
Matthew A. Mingle, Director
Article adapted from “Educator in the Spotlight: PARCC Bias and Sensitivity Review,” published
at http://www.parcconline.org/news-and-updates/318-educator-in-the-spotlight-parcc-biasand-sensitivity-review
What Do You Think?
“A Walk in the PARCC” is designed to keep the entire Madison learning community informed
as we transition to new educational standards and assessments. Please take a moment to
complete a brief survey to guide the development of future newsletters.
The survey can be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/AWalkInTheParcc.
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