PART II
• PARCC 101 and Aligning Expectations for
College Readiness and Success
1
What Is PARCC?
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for
College and Careers:
 Made up of 20 states
 Developing common, high-quality
math and English language arts
(ELA) tests for grades 3–11
 Computer-based and linked to what students need to know
for college and careers
 For use starting in the 2014–15 school year
2
Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for
College and Careers (PARCC)
5
PARCC is an innovative assessment system aligned to the
Common Core State Standards that will provide clear signals
about college and career readiness prior to high school
graduation
4
PARCC Goal: College Access and Success
• Identify a set of core competencies that represent a baseline of college
and career ready academic standards
• Develop innovative assessment system aligned to the standards – to help ensure new standards reach every classroom. And
– to provide clear signals to educators, parents and students about college
readiness prior to high school graduation
• Establish a College and Career Ready Determination Assessment
accepted and used by postsecondary faculty and administrators that
guarantees student placement into entry-level, credit-bearing college
courses without the need for remediation.
• Provide early interventions, tools and transition courses to ensure
students meet postsecondary goals.
5
Getting All Students College and
Career Ready
Ongoing student support/interventions
K–2
Voluntary K–2
assessment being
developed, aligned to
the Common Core State
Standards
Grades 3–8
Timely data showing
whether ALL students
are on track for college
and career readiness
High
School
College readiness
score to identify who is
ready for college-level
coursework
Success In
first-year,
credit-bearing,
postsecondary
coursework
Targeted interventions
and supports:
• State-developed 12thgrade bridge courses
Professional development for educators
6
Assessments
ELA/Literacy and Mathematics, Grades 3–11
Beginning of
School Year
End of
School Year
Flexible administration
Diagnostic
Assessment
Mid-Year
Assessment
PerformanceBased
Assessment
End-of-Year
Assessment
Speaking and
Listening
Assessment
Key:
Optional
Required
7
Development of the PARCC Assessments:
The Role of Postsecondary Faculty, Leaders and
Policy Makers
8
What is Different About PARCC’s
Development Process?
• PARCC states first developed the Model Content Frameworks to
provide guidance on key elements of excellent instruction aligned
with the Standards.
• Then, those Frameworks informed the assessment blueprint design.
• Aligned evidence statements and task models followed.
So…
• PARCC is designing the assessments around exactly the same
content shifts the standards expect of teachers and students.
• PARCC is communicating in the same voice to teachers as it is to
assessment developers
9
State Led Design and Development
State developed
college-ready
standards
State K-12 and
postsecondary
educator and
content expert
test
development
State led
engagement
process: Higher
Education and K-12
PARCC
Assessments
developed by the
states for the states
Statedeveloped
CCRD and ontrack
measures
Educators in the PARCC consortium can trust that test
items reflect the Common Core State Standards and
the quality expectations of teachers in their states
10
More than 60 Illinois State Educators,
Administrators and Policy Makers are Assisting
in Developing the PARCC Assessments
Governing Board:
• Christopher Koch, State Superintendent of Education, Illinois State Board of
Education
Advisory Committee on College Readiness:
• Sheila Simon, Lieutenant Governor, State of Illinois
PARCC K-12 State Leads/Governing Board Deputies:
• Dan Long, PARCC Project Director, Illinois State Board of Education
• Susie Morrison, Deputy Superintendent, Illinois State Board of Education
• Mary O’Brian, Director of Assessment, Illinois State Board of Education
Higher Education Leadership Team Members:
• Daniel Cullen, Deputy Director, Illinois Board of Higher Education
• Brian Durham, Senior Director for Academic Affairs, Illinois Community College Board
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Postsecondary Engagement
• Through state level engagement efforts, almost 800 state
postsecondary institutions and systems have been involved
in the development of the PARCC assessment:
– Item review Teams
– Higher Education Leadership Team
– Educator Leader Cadres
• PARCC ACCR and Higher Education Leadership Team played
an integral role in defining and adopting the College and
Career Readiness Determination for placement into entrylevel, college-credit bearing courses
12
Sample Items:
Mathematics and English Language Arts/Literacy
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Grade 10 Evidence-Based SelectedResponse Item
Part A
Which of the following sentences best states an important theme about human behavior as described in Ovid’s “Daedalus and Icarus”?
a. Striving to achieve one’s dreams is a worthwhile endeavor.
b. The thoughtlessness of youth can have tragic results.*
c. Imagination and creativity bring their own rewards.
d. Everyone should learn from his or her mistakes.
Part B
Select three pieces of evidence from Ovid’s “Daedalus and Icarus” that support the answer to Part A.
a. “and by his playfulness retard the work/his anxious father planned” (lines 310-311)*
b. “But when at last/the father finished it, he poised himself” (lines 312-313)
c. “he fitted on his son the plumed wings/ with trembling hands, while down his withered cheeks/the tears were falling” (lines
327-329)
d. “Proud of his success/the foolish Icarus forsook his guide” (lines 348-349)*
e. “and, bold in vanity, began to soar/rising above his wings to touch the skies” (lines 350-351)*
f. “and as the years went by the gifted youth/began to rival his instructor’s art” (lines 376-377)
g. “Wherefore Daedalus/enraged and envious, sought to slay the youth” (lines 384-385)
h. “The Partridge hides/in shaded places by the leafy trees…for it is mindful of its former fall” (lines 395-396, 399)
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Grade 10 Evidence-Based SelectedResponse Item
Part A
What does the word vanity mean in these lines from the text “Daedalus and Icarus”?
“Proud of his success, the foolish Icarus forsook his guide, and, bold in vanity,
began to soar” (lines 345-349)
a. arrogance*
b. fear
c. heroism
d. enthusiasm
Part B
Which word from the lines from the text in Part A best helps the reader understand
the meaning of vanity?
a. proud*
b. success
c. foolish
d. soar
15
High School Illustrative Sample Item
Seeing Structure in a Quadratic Equation
16
Aligns to the Standards and Reflects
Good Practice
High School Illustrative Item Key Features and Assessment Advances
The given equation is quadratic equation with two solutions. The task does not clue the
student that the equation is quadratic or that it has two solutions; students must
recognize the nature of the equation from its structure. Notice that the terms 6x – 4 and
3x – 2 differ only by an overall factor of two. So the given equation has the structure
𝑄2 = 2𝑄
where Q is 3x – 2. The equation Q2 - 2Q is easily solved by factoring as Q(Q-2) = 0, hence
Q = 0 or Q = 2. Remembering that Q is 3x – 2, we have
3𝑥 − 2 = 0 or 3𝑥 − 2 = 2.
These two equations yield the solutions 23 and 43.
Unlike traditional multiple-choice tests, the technology in this task prevents guessing
and working backwards. The format somewhat resembles the Japanese University
Entrance Examinations format (see innovations in ITN Appendix F). A further
enhancement is that the item format does not immediately indicate the number of
solutions.
17
Timeline Through First PARCC
Administration in 2014-2015
PARCC Tools & Resources
Partnership
Resource
Center
launched
Spring
2013
Professional
development
modules
released
Summer
2013
Pilot/field
testing begins
K-2 Formative
Tools Released
Fall
2013
Winter
2014
Expanded field
testing of diagnostic
assessment
College-ready
tools released
Spring
2014
Diagnostic
assessments
released
Fall
2014
Summer
2014
Expanded field
testing
Winter
2015
Optional Diagnostic
and Midyear PARCC
Assessments
PARCC Assessment Implementation
18
Summative PARCC
Assessments
(2014-15 SY)
Spring
2015
Standard
Setting in
Summer 2015
PARCC Assessment Priorities from the
Postsecondary Perspective
1. Assess the full range of the Common Core Standards.
2. Guarantee students placement into entry-level, credit-bearing courses in
ELA and Mathematics without remediation by developing a College and
Career Ready Determination recognized by postsecondary institutions.
3. Provide clear signals to students about college and career readiness prior
to high school graduation.
4. Incorporate these indicators into a system of tools and transition courses,
aligned to the PARCC assessments, to support students in meeting
postsecondary goals.
19
The College and Career Ready Determination will guarantee
students placement into entry-level, credit-bearing courses
without the need for remediation.
20
Background: Policy-Level Performance
Level Descriptors
• PARCC states will use 5 achievement levels for grades 3-8 and HS in
ELA/literacy and mathematics
• Each of the proposed performance levels includes:
– Policy claims, which describe educational implications for students at a
particular performance level.
– General content claims, which describe academic knowledge and skills
students across grade levels performing at a given performance level are able
to demonstrate.
• Level 4 will be the threshold for earning the College and Career Ready
Determinations on the designated high school assessments
21
Background: College- and Career-Ready
Determination (CCRD) Policy
• Two College and Career Ready Determinations:
– English language arts/literacy
– Mathematics
• Students who receive a CCRD will have demonstrated the academic
knowledge, skills, and practices necessary to enter directly into and
succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing courses at public postsecondary
institutions without the need for remediation.
• Students who achieve the CCRD will be guaranteed exemption from
remedial course work in that content area.
• The PARCC Governing Board and ACCR approved the final policies during a
special October 25, 2012 session.
• Policies are located at www.parcconline.org/parcc-assessment-policies
22
CCRD: Placement NOT Admission
A College and Career Ready Determination on the PARCC assessments indicate:
• Mastery of the core competencies in the Common Core State Standards identified
by postsecondary education faculty as prerequisites for and key to success in entrylevel, credit-bearing courses in English and mathematics
• Readiness for placement into entry-level, credit-bearing courses in ELA and
mathematics
A College and Career Ready Determination will not:
• Determine admission to college or university
• Replace college/university tests to place students into higher level mathematics
and English courses
• Address non-traditional students who delay enrollment
23
Ensure the CCRD is embraced by postsecondary faculty and
administrators by continuing to validate the assessment
through targeted research and evaluation.
24
Standard-Setting/Validation Studies of
the CCRD
The following statement was approved for use to inform standard-setting
(determining cut scores for PARCC performance levels) and to conduct future studies
to validate the efficacy of the CCR Determinations.
– Students who earn a PARCC College- and Career-Ready Determination by
performing at a Level 4 in Mathematics and enroll in College Algebra,
Introductory Statistics, and technical courses requiring an equivalent level of
mathematics have approximately a 0.75 probability of earning college credit by
attaining at least a grade of C or its equivalent in those courses.
– Students who earn a PARCC College- and Career-Ready Determination by
performing at a Level 4 in ELA/literacy and enroll in College English
Composition, Literature, and technical courses requiring college-level reading
and writing have approximately a 0.75 probability of earning college credit by
attaining at least a grade of C or its equivalent in those courses.
25
Research Strategy for Validation of CCRD
• PARCC research strategy is to collect evidence to inform, establish, and evaluate the
success of methods, practices and processes to ensure that necessary conditions
and outcomes are satisfied to ensure the assessment system is implemented with
fidelity.
• To set college-ready performance standards on the high school assessments, PARCC
will use evidence from research such as:
—Concurrent validity studies
• Compare performance on PARCC with ACT/SAT/COMPASS/Accuplacer
—Predictive validity studies
•
Connect success of students on PARCC to performance in first-year courses
—Judgment studies
•
Rate importance of CCSS standards and test items in comparison with first-year
course content
—Alignment studies
26
•
Examine relationship between first course content and content PARCC measures
Engage postsecondary leaders from the local, state, and
national levels in the development and adoption of the
PARCC assessments and in interventions that increase access
to postsecondary opportunities for all students
27
Development and Adoption of the PARCC
Assessments
• Requires creation of state mechanisms and infrastructures to
facilitate postsecondary input into PARCC’s work and
postsecondary adoption of the PARCC CCRD as an indicator
of college readiness:
— Governance Plan
— State Specific Action Plan
— Collaborative Platforms/Mechanisms of Communication
28
Development and Adoption of the PARCC
Assessments
• Align first-year courses with CCSS
– Analyze consistency in the definition of 1st-year, credit bearing courses in
mathematics courses across colleges and states (range is from intermediate
algebra to calculus)
• Establish consistent policies across postsecondary systems in
your state about:
–
–
–
–
29
Placement
College readiness standards
College credit articulation
Align teacher preparation and alternative certification programs with
content and instructional shifts of the CCSS
Aligning Teacher Preparation Programs
• To strengthen alignment between pre-service and in-service training,
higher education and K-12 can collaborate to create professional
development around the standards by:
— Involving higher education faculty members in the fields of arts and
sciences, mathematics, and education in the development of
professional development modules
— Designing modules might include tasks, lesson plans, and standards
mapping exercises
— Coordinating development of these modules allows for the
possibility of faculty at partner institutions of higher education to
administer or teach the modules to their K-12 peers
30
30
Professional Development Arts and
Science Faculty
•
Arts and Science faculty teaching entry level English and
Math courses review the Common Core State Standards and
the assessment items in the PARCC assessment
•
Faculty review PARCC assessment to determine if assessment
measures “proficiency” of key Common Core Standards
•
Faculty review PARCC assessment as “next generation
assessment” to measure proficiency of knowledge and of
learning
•
Higher education institutions determine students proficient
on PARCC at level 5 or 4 are college and career ready and
may enroll in entry level, credit bearing course without
remediation
31
31
Develop a system of tools and transition courses, aligned to
the PARCC assessments, that support students in meeting
postsecondary goals.
32
Develop Cross-Sector Interventions
• In collaboration with K-12 counterparts:
— Determine the use of the PARCC assessment in identifying struggling
students
— Develop a system to support identified students during their senior
year
— Build unified State Longitudinal Data Systems and define common
metrics to link K12 and postsecondary student performance
• Support students through cross-sector intervention:
— Dual enrollment/Early College
— Transition/bridge courses
— Remediation reform
33
PARCC Progress Update
September
2013
34
In the Last Year…
January 2013  Formed Executive Committee For Streamlined Decision Making
March 2013




Assessment Administration Capacity Planning Tool Released
Estimated Time on Task Released
Item Development Research with 2,300 Students in 6 states
PARCC Non-Profit Formed
April 2013




Added Project Management & Procurement Capacity
Draft Performance Level Descriptors Released for Comment
Draft Accommodations Manual Released for Comment
Test Blueprints & Evidence Statements Released
June 2013
 Item Tryout Studies with 4,800+ Students in 4 States
 Guidance on Participation in Field Test and Practice Tests
July 2013
 Final Subject- and Grade-Level Performance Level Descriptors
Adopted
 First Edition of PARCC Accommodations Manual
35
Looking Ahead: 2013
Fall 2013
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Winter
2013-2014
• Specifications for Online Testing Portal Released
• Final Information about Field Testing
• Final Information about Timing of Data Return
Schools and Districts Notified of Selection for Field Testing
Sample Items Re-Released on Technology Platform
Design of Student Score Reports Released
Minimum Technology Specifications, version 3.0
Training Materials for IEP Writing Teams on Accommodations Manual
Educator Leader Cadre October Convening
Timeline / Plan for Student Registration for Operational Testing
36
Looking Ahead: 2014 and Beyond
Spring 2014
• Field Test Administration (May-June)
• Practice Test Available
• Standard-Setting Methodology Released
Summer 2014
•
•
•
•
Fall 2014
• Operational Assessment Administration Manual
• Forms Construction for Operational Administration Complete
Winter
2014-2015
• 1st Operational Assessment – Fall 2014 Block Schedule Administration of
PBA and EOY
Spring 2015
• 1st Operational Assessment – Spring 2014 Administration of PBA and EOY
Summer 2015
• Student Performance Levels and Associated Cut Scores for all Grades and
for College- and Career-Ready Determination (Standard-Setting)
Final Information about Methodology for Calculating Student Scores
Final Test Security Policies Released
Final Registration Timeline and Process for Operational Testing Released
Final Technology Specifications Released
37
Illinois’ Timeline
SY 2010-11
Illinois
Adopts
Common Core
State Standards
SYIll
SY 2010-2014
Illinois Focus on
CCSS
Implementation
SY 2012-13
SY 2011-15
Illinois Begin
Discussion of
College and
Career Ready
Definition
Participation in
Development
of PARCC
Assessment
SY 2014-15
Summer 2015
PARCC Fully
Developed for
administration
of PARCC
assessments
by states
Set
achievement
levels,
including
college-ready
performance
levels
Benefits of CCSS to Higher Education
• Better information about the preparation of incoming students
- Better use of 12th grade
• Improved preparation of incoming students – from all states
- Increased academic rigor in entry-level, credit-bearing courses
• Reduced remediation rates
- Increased funding may be redirected to support credit-bearing courses
• Increased degree attainment rates
- Increased capacity – colleges can admit more students
• Better options for academic interventions to ensure students remain ontrack to college readiness
39
Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers
www.parcconline.org
www.achieve.org/PARCC
Slane@bhe.mass.edu
40