PARCC & The Common Core

1. PARCC & The Common Core Presented by Robin Knutelsky ELC Member for the State of New Jersey Jefferson Township Schools

2. What do you know? Value Line: What do you know about PARCC?

3. At the “Core”

4. What is PARCC? • Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career • Assessments will measure whether students are on track (College and Career Ready) and if instructional programs and practices are effective • College and career readiness determination will signal to postsecondary institutions that student are prepared to do first-year college work without remediation

5. Common Core State Standards • PARCC will measure standards achievement • Shifts in Instruction • What students learn and can do on demand and independently • Text based questions (rely on textual understanding) • Text based responses that are grounded in evidence • Mathematical practices • Think about what we should be seeing in the classroom as evidence of the CCSS

6. If students are reading text or talking about text, are they able to… • Determine what the text says explicitly • Draw inferences • Determine central idea or theme • Analyze how and why individuals and ideas develop over the course of the text • Interpret words and phrases • Analyze structure of the text • Assess how point of view or purpose shapes a text • Integrate and evaluate content in diverse formats • Analyze how two or more text interact and build knowledge • Read and comprehend complex text

7. If students are writing, are they… • Writing arguments • Writing informative or explanatory tests • Writing narratives • Produce clear and coherent writing • Use technology to produce and publish • Conducting research to demonstrate understanding • Gather information from multiple sources • Write routinely over extended time frames

8. When students are using language, do they apply their knowledge of… • Conventions of standard English grammar and usage • Meanings of multiple meaning words • Word relationships and nuances in word meanings • General academic (tier II) and domain specific words (tier III)

9. Looking for Focus and Coherence in Mathematics • Focus-necessary and sufficient time to think, practice and integrate new ideas into knowledge structure • Coherence-mathematical connections that “knit” topics together

10. Mathematical Practices • Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them • Reason abstractly and quantitatively • Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others • Model with mathematics • Use appropriate tools strategically • Attend to precision • Look for and make use of structure • Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

11. Problem solving with precision • Reason abstractly and quantitatively • Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others Reasoning and Explaining Grouping the Mathematical Practice Standards • 4. Model with mathematics • Use appropriate tools strategically Modeling and using tools 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them 6. Attend to precision • Look for and make use of structure • Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning Seeing structure and generalizing

12. We know we are on our way when… Students can demonstrate the CCSS independently and on demand

13. Goals of PARCC To dramatically increase the rates at which students graduate from high school prepared for success in college and the workplace. • Determine whether students are “on-track” to be “college and career ready.” • Assess the full range of the Common Core State Standards, including standards that are difficult to measure. • Measure the full range of student performance, including high and low performing students. • Provide data during the academic year to inform instruction, interventions and professional development. • Provide data for accountability, including measures of growth.

14. Key Shifts in PARCC Design as a Response to the Shift in the CCSS • Complexity: The standards require regular practice with complex text and its academic language • Evidence: The standards emphasize reading and writing grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational • Knowledge: The standards require building knowledge through content rich non-fiction, informational text and literature

15. The CCSS Shifts Build Toward College and Career Readiness for All StudentsKey Shifts

16. PARCC Vocabulary Primer • EOY- End of Year • PBA- Performance Based Assessment • PLD-Performance Level Descriptor • Evidence Table-Claims, standards and evidences of what students will be able to demonstrate, independently and on demand, that will be assessed • PCR-Prose Constructed Response • EBSR-Evidence Based Selected Response • TECR-Technology-Enhanced Constructed Response

17. Vocabulary Primer Part II • ELA Task-a coherent collection of assessment items. Tasks are cohesive because they are connected to a specific reading passage or set of passagesthat includes EBSR, TECR and/or PCR • Math Task- an operational item that may either have a single prompt or multiple prompts. The PARCC math tests contain three types of tasks: • Type I tasks assess concepts, skills and procedures • Type II tasks assess students’ ability to express mathematical reasoning • Type III tasks assess modeling and applications

18. Technology-Enhanced Constructed Response (TECR) Uses technology to capture student comprehension of texts in authentic ways: • Drag and drop • Cut and paste • Shade text • Move items

19. Timeline PARCC • Field test administration (March-June) 2014 • Spring 2014 • Practice test available • Standard-setting • Summer 2014 • Methodology for calculating scores • Final technology specifications released • Winter 2014-1st Operational Assessment block schedule administration PBA and EOY • Spring 2015- 1st Operational Assessment PBA and EOY • Summer 2015 –Cut scores and College and Career Readiness Determination

20. Testing Blueprint • The 3-11 PARCC assessments will be delivered at each grade level and will be based directly on the Common Core State Standards • The PARCC design includes four components • Two required summative (PBA and EOY) • Two optional non-summative - to provide educators with timely feedback to inform instruction and provide multiple measures of student achievement across the school year (Baseline and MY) • More specifics in the district shared drive for “PARCC”

21. Assessment DesignEnglish Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics, Grades 3-11 2 Optional Assessments/Flexible Administration • End-of-Year • Assessment • Innovative, computer-based items • Required • Mid-Year Assessment • Performance-based • Emphasis on hard-to-measure standards • Potentially summative • Performance-Based • Assessment (PBA) • Extended tasks • Applications of concepts and skills • Required • Diagnostic Assessment • Early indicator of student knowledge and skills to inform instruction, supports, and PD • Non-summative • Speaking And Listening Assessment • Locally scored • Non-summative, required

22. Summative Assessment Components: • Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) administered after approximately 75% of the school year • ELA PBA will focus on writing effectively when analyzing text • Math PBA will focus on applying skills, concepts, and understandings to solve multi-step problems requiring abstract reasoning, precision, perseverance, and strategic use of tools • End-of-Year Assessment (EOY) administered after approximately 90% of the school year • ELA EOY will focus on reading comprehension • Math EOY will call on students to demonstrate further conceptual understanding

23. Non-Summative Assessment Components: • Diagnostic Assessment designed to be an indicator of student knowledge and skills so that instruction, supports, and professional development can be tailored to meet student needs. • Mid-Year Assessment (MYA) comprised of performance-based items and tasks, with an emphasis on hard-to-measure standards. After study, individual states may consider including the MYA as a summative component. • Speaking and Listening Assessment (ELA/literacy only) designed to be an indicator of students’ ability to communicate their own ideas, listen to and comprehend the ideas of others, and to integrate and evaluate information from multimedia sources.

24. Support and Guidance: What can we be doing? • Visit PARCConline.org • Review materials in the “shared drive” • Checkout the Accommodations Manual • Visit NJ Department of Education website • Understand types of questions • Evaluate released questions and rubrics • Shift instruction

25. What do you know? Value Line: What do you know about PARCC?