Maryland planning new state standardized tests to replace PARCC

Maryland officials are dropping the state’s standardized test — known by parents, teachers and students as simply PARCC — in favor of something shorter and they hope more popular.

Maryland is one of just a handful of states still giving the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers tests, once used in dozens of states, but criticized as too time-consuming and too disruptive to the school schedule. It’s also difficult — less than half of Maryland students can pass it.

The state is seeking bids from contractors to design a new assessment that requires less time to take and grade, but it will not be ready for use until the 2019-2020 school year. So the state will spend another $11 million to continue testing with PARCC this spring.

The impetus for change came from Maryland State Superintendent Karen Salmon and Gov. Larry Hogan, who said he got many complaints.

“Nearly everyone in Maryland — parents, teachers, students and the governor want these tests to end,” Hogan said at a Board of Public Works meeting last month...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bs-md-parcc-replacement-test-20180905-story.html

MCPS Performance on PARCC Tests Exceeds State Average, But High School Passage Rates Declined

Montgomery County Public Schools students performed above state averages across the board, but the percentage of students passing standardized tests in high school has decreased since 2017, according to new data.

The complete 2018 Maryland assessment results for students across the state were released Tuesday in a presentation before the Maryland State Board of Education in Baltimore.

Statewide, the percent of students attaining a performance level of 4 or 5 on English Language Arts exams in grades three through eight improved 1 percentage point over the last school year to 41.6 percent. The percent of students scoring at performance level 4 or 5 on mathematics in grade three through eight also increased 1 percentage point to 34.1 percent.

The tests are scored on a 650-to-850-point scale, which has been translated into five performance levels, with level 1 set as not meeting expectations and level 5 set as exceeding expectations. Performance level 4 or 5 is considered “proficient” on the assessment by the state board. However, testing into the third performance category is good enough to meet the state’s graduation requirement...

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/mcps-performance-on-parcc-tests-exceeds-state-average-but-high-school-passage-rates-declined/

Maryland House OKs bill limiting school testing

The Maryland House of Delegates approved a bill Tuesday that would limit the amount of time school districts can spend on testing.
The Less Testing, More Learning Act sailed through with minimal debate on a 139-0 vote....

 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-less-testing-20170228-story.html

State BOE Issues Opinion on "Opt Out" of State Assessments

   FrederickCo.boe.Opin.no.16 13 by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Less than half of students in Maryland pass PARCC

Less than half of Maryland elementary and middle school students can pass the tough new standardized tests, a result school officials attribute to an overhaul of teaching and testing standards in the past several years. Maryland raised the standards for what public school students are expected to learn two years ago and the results show that teachers and students have not yet adjusted to the higher expectations of the new Partnership for Assessments of Career and College Readiness or PARCC.
On the reading test, nearly 40 percent of Maryland students in grades three through eight failed to meet the standard set by educators from Maryland and about 10 other states. Only 30 percent met the standard in math. That standard could be adjusted by the Maryland State school board if they believe it is too high.
"We have set the bar high, and this data reflects that," said Interim State Schools Superintendent Jack Smith, in a statement. "These results should be viewed in combination with other measures when assessing student progress."
The results were not as good as those in Massachusetts and New Jersey, but slightly better than those in Illinois, Louisiana and Rhode Island. Not all of the states that give the test have released all of their data yet...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-parcc-scores-20151208-story.html

PARCC Cuts Total Test Time by 90 Minutes

Press Release: Maryland's State Assessment Program To Be Streamlined

PARCC to be Shorter, Use Single Testing Window

For Immediate Release                                               Contact: William Reinhard, 410-767-0486
Baltimore, MD (May 21, 2015)

Maryland students in grades 3-8 and high school will spend less time taking State assessments next year as a result of changes approved unanimously by the multi-state consortium governing the tests.
The Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) yesterday voted to consolidate the PARCC assessment’s two testing windows into one and cut total test time by about 90 minutes overall beginning in the 2015-16 school year.  The changes were made in response to feedback from parents, students, and educators during the first year of testing and a careful review of test design.
“Next year’s PARCC tests will take less time away from lessons, and cause less disruption to school schedules, while still keeping students on track for college and careers,” said State Superintendent of School Lillian M. Lowery. “These changes will help us focus on what’s most important—ensuring that students are learning to think critically and master the skills they will need to graduate, ready for success.”
The revisions to PARCC will:

• Combine the two English language arts and two math testing window to one 30-day window near the end of the semester or the school year.

• Reduce the number of test units that students will take from 8 or 9, depending upon the grade level, to 7 or 6.

• Cut the testing time for students by about 90 minutes overall depending on content and grade level.

The first full year of PARCC implementation in Maryland has gone smoothly for the most part, with more than 1.3 million tests administered and completed.  The new assessments, aligned to Maryland’s College and Career Ready Standards, replaced the Maryland School Assessment tests this year.  Additional details on the changes to the PARCC test is available here.


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Teachers Union passes a Resolution against PARCC testing in Massachusetts

Among the reasons for opposing PARCC are: 

- the public and teachers are not allowed to see and discuss PARCC exams;

- there is no way to verify the validity and appropriateness of PARCC exams, yet they may influence students’ academic transcripts and impact their futures; 

- the exams take away from teaching time. 

http://aftma.net/2015/05/parcc-resolution/

PARCC testing is back and concerns about student privacy, test value, gag orders on teachers remain

AFT’s Weingarten to Pearson: Lift Gag Order on Testing

As MCPS students sit for (or refuse) the 2nd round of PARCC testing, the ATF President Randi Weingarten delivers in person a letter to Pearson's shareholders asking the company that administers the PARCC test to stop spying on student social media and lift the gag order on teachers so that teachers, parents and students could review the PARCC test and voice concerns about it. Watch a video of Weingarten's message to Pearson and read her letter here.
  

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Initial PARCC test reactions mixed in Montgomery

...At the school board’s March 10 meeting, discussion of PARCC tests included questions, concerns and positive reports.
School board member Jill Ortman-Fouse raised concerns about why the testing experience could vary for different students.
One issue, she said in an interview, is that some students taking one version answer questions using sound clips, while other students only look at text.
Ortman-Fouse said she’s concerned about students who receive accommodations different from what they are used to during the test.
“I really question the usability of the data we’re going to be getting,” she said in the interview...

 http://www.gazette.net/article/20150318/NEWS/150319298/1007&source=RSS&template=gazette

PARCC Statement from MCPS Office of Shared Accountability

Thank you for writing with your question about your child's participation in the upcoming administration of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests.  Your e-mail to Dr. Maria V. Navarro, chief academic officer, has been forwarded to me for response.

 

Montgomery County Public Schools is required to administer the PARCC tests to students this year, and the Maryland State Department of Education has instructed school systems that students may not be granted exemptions or waivers to taking these tests.  While we do acknowledge that students may refuse to test, we are obligated to provide them with the opportunity to participate.

 

For students who do not participate in PARCC testing they would consequently not receive a score report.  While we are in a transition year and results will be delayed due to the standard setting process, student performance on standardized tests does help to inform the work of our schools and school system.

 

 

Annie Amantea 
Administrative Services Manager 
Office of Shared Accountability 
850 Hungerford Drive, Room 11
Rockville, Maryland (MD)  20850 
301-279-3784 
Fax:  301-279-3849

MCPS PARCC Satire

MCPS Says Parents Have No Need To Worry About Classroom Chromebook Privacy

Parents at the meeting last week also expressed concern about Pearson Education, the company that has its hands in a number of educational products, including the upcoming Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers or PARCC tests.
Unlike Google, Pearson has not signed the pledge against using student information for advertising purposes. This year, MCPS rolled out myMCPS, a new online class registration system for middle and high schoolers that uses Pearson technology.

 http://www.bethesdanow.com/2015/02/26/mcps-says-parents-have-no-need-to-worry-about-classroom-chromebook-privacy/#more-28240

Pearson Gets PARCC Contract, They were only bidder. #parcc #pearson

Pearson is expected to perform a broad range of duties under the contract, including development of test items, delivery of paper-and-pencil and computerized test forms, reporting of results, analysis of scores, and working with states to develop "cut scores," or performance standards for the exams.
While a number of companies inquired in response to PARCC's request for proposals for the project, ultimately Pearson was the only bidder, said James Mason, who helped negotiate the contract as part of a team of PARCC state leaders.

 http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/marketplacek12/2014/05/pearson_wins_major_contract_from_common-core_testing_consortium.html

 

Field-Testing of Common-Core Exams Gets Off to Shaky Start at Wootton HS

Full text of article at this Education Week link.

At Thomas S. Wootton High School, teachers and administrators seem to be in agreement that field-testing for the common-core assessments is off to a bumpy start. I spent the morning of April 2 in a computer lab at the school with 9th graders who were randomly assigned to take the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, tests in English/language arts. This was the group's second attempt at completing the computer-based tests, which are aligned to the Common Core State Standards.Last week, students at the school encountered technical difficulties—software systems that "weren't jiving," said Joseph Du Boyce, an assistant principal at Wootton High School—and eventually were sent back to their regular classrooms without taking the exam...,,,On the day I visited Wootton High, Mr. Du Boyce began by walking students through a Java update intended to help prevent software problems. He repeatedly urged the students to "be patient"—though his own actions revealed some edginess. He circled the lab with purpose and breezed through the instructions, which he later told me were "very unclear" and "poorly written.""Let's pray this works," he said to students as they clicked the sign-in box on their computer screens......As the students began the PARCC test, Mr. Du Boyce was rushed out of the room to address a technical problem in another computer lab. A few minutes later, the two remaining proctors realized that none of the students had headphones, which were supposed to have been distributed before the test began. A couple of students raised their hands when they reached items that required them to listen to a reading—though some did not and plowed on. About 10 minutes after testing had begun, a staff member entered with the headphones PARCC had provided. The proctors couldn't help but laugh as they picked apart the mess of tangled cords... 
...JeanMarie Joseph, a special education teacher at the school who has taught for 28 years, said she's seen the evolution of states tests and understands there are often "rough spots to iron out" with new assessments. However, having experienced the computer difficulties while administering the test to a student with special needs, she said, with PARCC, "I've been underwhelmed so far."

PARCC piloted at Fallsmead Elementary and other county schools

Gazette: Fallsmead students try new state assessment test

Some Maryland students get PARCC test drive | Education Alert - WBAL Home

Some Maryland students get PARCC test drive | Education Alert - WBAL Home