PART II

1. PART II • PARCC 101 and Aligning Expectations for College Readiness and Success

2. 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

3. Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)

4. 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

5. 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 ensurestudents meet postsecondary goals.

6. Getting All Students College and Career Ready Ongoing student support/interventions Success In first-year, credit-bearing, postsecondary coursework Voluntary K–2 assessment being developed, aligned to the Common Core State Standards Timely data showing whether ALL students are on track for college and career readiness College readiness score to identify who is ready for college-level coursework • Targeted interventions and supports: • State-developed 12th-grade bridge courses Professional development for educators

7. AssessmentsELA/Literacy and Mathematics, Grades 3–11 Beginning of School Year End of School Year Flexible administration Performance-Based Assessment DiagnosticAssessment Mid-Year Assessment End-of-Year Assessment Speaking and Listening Assessment Key: Optional Required

8. Development of the PARCC Assessments: The Role of Postsecondary Faculty, Leaders and Policy Makers

9. 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 

10. State Led Design and Development • 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

11. 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

12. 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 entry-level, college-credit bearing courses

13. Sample Items: Mathematics and English Language Arts/Literacy

14. Grade 10 Evidence-Based Selected-Response Item Part A Which of the following sentences best states an important theme about human behavior as described in Ovid’s “Daedalus and Icarus”? • Striving to achieve one’s dreams is a worthwhile endeavor. • The thoughtlessness of youth can have tragic results.* • Imagination and creativity bring their own rewards. • 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. • “and by his playfulness retard the work/his anxious father planned” (lines 310-311)* • “But when at last/the father finished it, he poised himself” (lines 312-313) • “he fitted on his son the plumed wings/ with trembling hands, while down his withered cheeks/the tears were falling” (lines 327-329) • “Proud of his success/the foolish Icarus forsook his guide” (lines 348-349)* • “and, bold in vanity, began to soar/rising above his wings to touch the skies” (lines 350-351)* • “and as the years went by the gifted youth/began to rival his instructor’s art” (lines 376-377) • “Wherefore Daedalus/enraged and envious, sought to slay the youth” (lines 384-385) • “The Partridge hides/in shaded places by the leafy trees…for it is mindful of its former fall” (lines 395-396, 399)

15. Grade 10 Evidence-Based Selected-Response 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) • arrogance* • fear • heroism • enthusiasm Part B Which word from the lines from the text in Part A best helps the reader understand the meaning of vanity? • proud* • success • foolish • soar

16. High School Illustrative Sample Item Seeing Structure in a Quadratic Equation

17. 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 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 . These two equations yield the solutions and .  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.

18. Timeline Through First PARCC Administration in 2014-2015 PARCC Tools & Resources Partnership Resource Center launched K-2 Formative Tools Released Diagnostic assessments released Professional development modules released College-ready tools released Summative PARCC Assessments (2014-15 SY) Winter 2015 Spring 2015 Fall 2014 Spring 2013 Summer 2013 Fall 2013 Winter 2014 Spring 2014 Summer 2014 Pilot/field testing begins Expanded field testing of diagnostic assessment Expanded field testing Optional Diagnostic and Midyear PARCC Assessments Standard Setting in Summer 2015 PARCC Assessment Implementation

19. PARCC Assessment Priorities from the Postsecondary Perspective • Assess the full range of the Common Core Standards. • Guaranteestudents 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. • Provide clear signals to students about college and career readiness prior to high school graduation. • Incorporate these indicators into a system of tools and transition courses, aligned to the PARCC assessments, to support students in meeting postsecondary goals.

20. The College and Career Ready Determination will guarantee students placement into entry-level, credit-bearing courses without the need for remediation.

21. Background: Policy-Level Performance Level Descriptors • PARCC states will use 5 achievement levelsfor 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

22. 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

23. 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 entry-level, 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 • Replacecollege/university tests to place students into higher level mathematics and English courses • Address non-traditional students who delay enrollment

24. Ensure the CCRD is embraced by postsecondary faculty and administrators by continuing to validate the assessment through targeted research and evaluation.

25. 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 Mathematicsand enroll in College Algebra, Introductory Statistics, and technical courses requiring an equivalent level of mathematicshave 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.

26. 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 Predictivevalidity studies Connect success of students on PARCC to performance in first-year courses Judgmentstudies Rate importance of CCSS standards and test items in comparison with first-year course content Alignment studies Examine relationship between first course content and content PARCC measures Research Strategy for Validation of CCRD

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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: • Placement • College readiness standards • College credit articulation • Align teacher preparation and alternative certification programs with content and instructional shifts of the CCSS

30. Aligning Teacher Preparation Programs 30 30 • 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

31. Professional Development Arts and Science Faculty 31 31 • 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

32. Develop a system of tools and transition courses, aligned to the PARCC assessments, that support students in meeting postsecondary goals.

33. 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

34. PARCC Progress Update September 2013

35. In the Last Year…

36. Looking Ahead: 2013

37. Looking Ahead: 2014 and Beyond

38. SY 2012-13 Illinois Begin Discussion of College and Career Ready Definition SY 2011-15 Participation in Development of PARCC Assessment SY 2014-15 PARCC Fully Developed for administration of PARCC assessments by states Summer 2015 Set achievement levels, including college-ready performance levels SY 2010-11 Illinois Adopts Common Core State Standards SYIll SY 2010-2014 Illinois Focus on CCSS Implementation Illinois’ Timeline

39. 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 • Betteroptions for academic interventions to ensure students remain on-track to college readiness

40. Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers www.parcconline.org www.achieve.org/PARCC Slane@bhe.mass.edu