Is PARCC Testing Really Ready for Roll-Out?

By Mitch Evans

As a district, Bedford is currently half-way through a two-year pilot of a new generation of computer-based exams called Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Massachusetts joined PARCC as part of a package deal to get federal “Race to the Top” money. The package also included adopting the Common Core and tying school rankings and teacher evaluations to student test scores.

Here in Bedford our own Superintendent of Schools Jon Sills “welcomes the move to a new generation of tests that will assess more complex thinking as well as students’ ability to apply what they have learned.” However, Sills reported at the March 10 School Committee meeting that he has several concerns about the new exams.

First, Pearson, the company which won the federally funded $63 million contract to host and administer the PARCC assessments, is not ready to handle the task. On February 23, in preparation for the official exams in a few weeks’ time, John Glenn Middle School students took part in a sample timed PARCC math test paper. Students logged onto school iPads and computers but soon found themselves being kicked off the Pearson server every 10 minutes. This level of technical unreliability on a timed exam will impact the accuracy of the assessments as well as the students’ state of mind.

Sills also voiced his concerns that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) plans to publicize students’ PARCC scores this year. He feels that a two year settling-in period, as happened when the MCAS tests were introduced, would be a more sensible route. This grace period would allow any problems to be identified, and would give teachers and students more time to become familiar with the use of the technology and the style of the new exam questions, before full scale implementation.

Superintendent Sills has expressed his concerns in a letter to Mitchell D. Chester, commissioner of the Massachusetts DESE, who also happens to serve as chairman of the governing board for PARCC ; he is currently awaiting a response. In the meantime a new PARCC committee is being set up by several Massachusetts school superintendents to provide feedback to the commissioner of the DESE and Jon Sills has been invited to serve on the board.

About PARCC testing

According to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, grades 3-8 students in 54% of Massachusetts districts (approximately 220,000 students) will be taking assessments developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) rather than the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). Later this year, the same Board will vote on whether to implement PARCC statewide as the new assessment test to permanently replace MCAS. Critics of the 17-year-old MCAS test say it is outdated and does not reflect necessary academic standards, while others opposed to changing the test say the state is moving too fast to replace it with an untested alternative.

Prior stories about PARCC in The Bedford Citizen