Only Certain Sections of 6th and 8th Grade NMS Students Selected to Participate in PARCC Field Test
Massachusetts is currently developing a high quality, 21st
century student testing program called the Partnership for Assessment of
Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC. The goal of PARCC is to measure
student progress toward the state's new academic learning standards in English
language arts and mathematics, which were adopted in 2010. Over the next two
years, schools statewide will "test drive" PARCC before the state
decides whether to fully adopt this new test and replace our current test,
MCAS.
I have informed specific sections of students' parents that their child has been selected to take a PARCC test in English
language arts (for one section of Ms. Borges and one section of Ms. Fisher’s 6th
Grade ELA2 class to be tested in May) or mathematics (for one section of Ms.
Hunter/Ms. White’s and one section of Ms. Macquarrie/Ms. White’s Pre-Algebra class to be tested in
late March/early April and in May) this spring. Only those students are the ones participating in the field test for this year.
The purpose of this spring's
administration of PARCC is to try out the test questions, before the test
counts, and to make certain the questions measure the subject area content
contained in the learning standards. Our student's participation is important
and allows the Commonwealth to build the best test it can for all of our students.
Students selected to take a PARCC test will also take the
MCAS test in that same subject. For instance, if a child is selected to take
a PARCC test in mathematics (8th grade student), he or she will
still participate in and receive an MCAS score in mathematics, as well as other
MCAS subjects (English language arts; science and technology/engineering for
grades 8). If a child is selected to take a PARCC test in English language arts (6th grade student), he or she will still participate in and receive an MCAS score in ELA, as well as the other tested MCAS subject area of mathematics. A child, who participates in the field test, will not receive a score or grade based on her or his
performance on PARCC, but will for MCAS.
If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
If you wish to learn more about PARCC, please visit http://www.doe.mass.edu/parcc/,
send an email to parcc@doe.mass.edu,
or, as always, ask me.
Thank you.
