A Publication of
the Madison
Public Schools
Office of
Curriculum and
Instruction
December 2013
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.
What is PARCC?
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a consortium of
18 states plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands 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. These new K-12 assessments will build a pathway to college and career
readiness by the end of high school, mark students’ progress toward this goal from 3rd grade up,
and provide teachers with timely information to inform instruction and provide student
support. The PARCC assessments will be ready for states to administer during the 2014-15
school year.
PARCC received a $186 million grant through the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the
Top assessment competition to support the development and design of the next-generation
assessment system.
Additional details including sample questions can be found at www.parcconline.org.
Common Core State Standards - FAQ
Q: What are educational standards?
A: Educational standards help teachers ensure their students have the skills and knowledge they
need to be successful by providing clear goals for student learning.
Q: What is the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI)?
A: The CCSSI is a state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for
kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and mathematics that states
voluntarily adopted. The standards are designed to ensure that students graduating from high
school are prepared to enter credit bearing entry courses in two or four year college programs
or enter the workforce. The standards are clear and concise to ensure that parents, teachers,
and students have a clear understanding of the expectations in reading, writing, speaking and
listening, language, and mathematics in school.
Q: Who leads the CCSSI?
A: The nation’s governors and education commissioners. Teachers, parents, school
administrators and experts from across the country together with state leaders provided input
into the development of the standards.
Masthead Design:
The full standards and more information can be found at www.corestandards.org.
Dani Bratton
Madison High School Teacher
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Informational Texts to the Fore
The Common Core State Standards call for a significant shift to informational text reading.
What exactly is informational text?
Definitions vary, and some lists include biographies, memoirs, and other “true stories” as well as
historical works, speeches, journalism, explanatory and opinion articles, scientific writing, and
other explanatory and expository texts. The point is for students to be exposed to a wide variety
of genres.
Why are informational texts important?
“The argument for
informational texts is
not that students
should read more
information and less
literature, but that
they should read
more of both.
Righting the current
imbalance will simply
require increases in
reading of
information.”
-Timothy Shanahan
Many students in U.S. elementary schools are getting a diet of 80 percent literature, with not
nearly enough history and science. This doesn’t prepare them for the kind of reading they will
need to do in secondary schools, college, and the workplace.
What should we expect students to learn from reading informational text?
Knowledge. The more students know, the easier it is for them to read a variety of material, and
informational text, by its very nature, is rich in knowledge. Reading nonfiction also exposes
students to rhetorical structures that are distinct from literary texts: there’s more problemsolution, cause-and-effect, compare-and-contrast, and persuasion. Students also learn how to
understand and use bullet points, italics and bold print, headings and subheadings, sidebars,
tables, graphs, and indexes.
What is the right informational/literary balance?
The Common Core calls for a 50/50 split in elementary grades and 70 percent informational
texts in middle and high school. This does not mean that high-school English teachers can only
devote 30 percent to poetry, short stories, novels, and plays. The Common Core percentages
include students’ reading in all subjects – history, science, and math – not just English. There’s
nothing wrong with literature taking up the lion’s share of the reading that students do in their
English classes. But English teachers can play an important part in improving students’ skill
analyzing and interpreting the rhetoric and language in biographies, essays, speeches,
journalistic writing, and other literary nonfiction.
Will students be reading fiberglass installation manuals and the minutes of Federal Reserve
Board meetings?
These are canards thrown out by opponents of the Common Core. Students are much more
likely to be reading the U.S. Constitution, Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, and Ronald Reagan’s
speech to students at Moscow University.
Are informational texts developmentally appropriate for kindergarten students?
Yes, if they’re well chosen. Primary-grade students are fascinated with many kinds of nonfiction
texts.
Timothy Shanahan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of urban education at the University of
Illinois at Chicago where he was Founding Director of the Center for Literacy and chair of the
Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
Excerpted from “You Want Me to Read What?!” by Timothy Shanahan in Educational
Leadership, November 2013 (Vol. 71, #3, p. 10-15), www.ascd.org
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PARCC Field Testing Coming to Madison
Four of Madison’s five schools have been asked to participate in PARCC field testing this year.
According to the New Jersey Department of Education, the field tests are an opportunity for
districts to “experience both the content of the new PARCC tests as well as the process for
administering the computer-based assessments.” The tests will not count for or against
students, teachers, or schools in any way and no student achievement data will be generated
Performance-Based
based on field test performance.
Assessments will
be given between
Madison is one of 445 districts selected for field testing in New Jersey. The full list of all
March 24-April 11, participating schools in New Jersey is available at
2014.
http://www.nj.gov/education/news/2013/1217parcc_a.htm.
End-of-Year
Assessments will
be given between
May 5-June 6,
2014.
The PARCC assessments include two components: Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) and
End-of-Year Assessment (EOY). These assessments are given in two separate testing windows.
Additional information about the content of these assessments will follow in subsequent
newsletters.
It is important to note that select classes of students will participate in field testing as
determined by the New Jersey Department of Education. Further details are anticipated in
January.
School Name Grade/Course
Subject Area
Number of
Classes
Component
Number of
Sessions
Central
Avenue
3
ELA
2
PBA
3
Central
Avenue
4
Math
2
PBA
2
Kings Road
5
ELA
2
EOY
2
Madison
Junior School
7
Math
2
PBA & EOY
4
Madison
Junior School
8
ELA
2
PBA
3
Madison
High School
9
ELA
2
PBA & EOY
5
Latest Updates from PARCC

All PARCC sample items will be re-released on the PARCC field test technology platform in
January 2014. The items will include a range of features to help familiarize students,
teachers and parents with the new PARCC item types and the functions available on testing
day (e.g. equation builders, drag and drop, highlighting).

Guidance on student computer skills for the PARCC assessments will be available in January
2014.

Also in January 2014, PARCC will release a technology tutorial to familiarize students with
how to navigate the computer-based assessment format, including how to go forward and
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backward within the test, how to use the tool bar, and how to access embedded supports
and accommodations.

Full practice tests at every grade and course will be released in March/April 2014.
Changes Coming to the High School Graduation Test
For the first time since 1989, New Jersey will next year suspend its requirement that high
school graduates pass a state test in language arts and math to receive their diplomas.
But that doesn't mean there will be fewer tests, just that they'll be used for different purposes.
For instance, current eighth, ninth, and tenth graders will be tested in language arts and math
now in three separate tests, and while passing the exams will not be required for graduation,
the scores will be included in a student’s permanent transcript.
When the tests will once again be a prerequisite for a diploma is still to be determined.
NJDOE suspends
graduation testing
requirement for
2014-2015.
The Christie administration is starting to plan for the new era of testing that will begin in 20142015, as part of the state’s alignment with the Common Core State Standards.
A central message was that the new PARCC testing will be a significant shift from the current
High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA), a comprehensive test given in 11th grade in
language arts and math and in effect serving for the last time as a graduation requirement this
year.
Starting in 2014-15, the new tests would instead be so-called end-of course assessments that
measure how a student mastered specific content, whenever it is taught.
For high schools, that will be three tests each in language arts and math The language arts will
in all likelihood be given in ninth, 10th and 11th grades. The math is a little trickier, covering
Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II. The tricky part is that Algebra I can be taught in many
districts in eighth grade.
Guidance from the New Jersey Department of Education indicates that students would be
expected to take the Algebra I end-of-course exam whenever they take Algebra I, whether that
be at the middle or high school level.
Excerpted from: “Major Changes on the Way for New Jersey’s High School Tests” by John
Mooney in NJ Spotlight, November 20, 2013.
What Do You Think?
Office of Curriculum and
Instruction
Madison Public Schools
359 Woodland Road
Madison. NJ 07940
“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.
Matthew A. Mingle, Director
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