As a mother of two elementary aged children, the majority of my Facebook friends also have school aged children as well. In the last week or so, I’ve noticed this question popping up: “They’re taking the PARCC test again? Why? Didn’t they already take it?” I’ve even heard it from some of my children’s friends. “Why do we have to take PARCC again?”
Part of the role of a school district is to seek a partnership with parents in order to develop the ideal school-parent-child triangle of success. Districts must do all they can to communicate with parents regarding issues of concern, including the PARCC assessment. In order for that to happen, we must first understand the need for the two administrations of the PARCC test, the Performance-Based Assessment and the End-of-Year Assessment.
The Performance-Based Assessment, or PBA, is administered 75% of the way through the school year. The ELA portion of the test consists of 3 tasks, each of which requires students to read 1-3 texts, answer multiple-choice questions, and complete a writing task related to the texts. The math portion of the test consists of 2 units, each of which includes a variety of items: multiple-choice, multiple answer, and a constructed response. Other math items require students to provide not only an answer but also reasoning or modeling.
The End-of-Year test, or EOY, is administered 90% of the way through the school year. The EOY is shorter, and in terms of student response, simpler. The ELA section consists of reading passages and answering multiple-choice questions. There is no writing on the EOY. For math, all items will be multiple choice, multiple answer, or written answer only. There are no items that require students to write any explanation for answers.
So now we come back to the question of…why? Why two tests? Why is the seemingly harder test in March, when there is still so much learning that will take place between then and the end of the year? And how are students supposed to show growth when the tests are so close together?
Part of the answer lies in the logistics of it all. One of the goals of the PARCC consortium is to return testing results to districts in a timely manner, so that decisions can be made based on the data received. Reading students’ written responses in the ELA section takes time. Evaluating students’ reasoning and applications in the math section takes time. Administering the PBA with these types of responses 75% of the way through the school year allows the time necessary for proper scoring to be completed. Conversely, the EOY consists of computer scored items only. Even completing this portion of the test 90% of the way through the school year, results will be returned much more quickly, and at that point can be paired with the PBA scores for a complete look at how a student performed.
The other reason for having two tests is that the PBA and the EOY are assessing different things. It is not the intention of the PBA to give districts data they can use to inform instruction and therefore improve students’ performance on the EOY. The ELA PBA (have you caught up with all the acronyms yet?) is intended to focus on writing effectively when analyzing text, whereas the ELA EOY focuses on reading comprehension. The math PBA includes those items that require students to provide reasoning, apply what they know to real-life situations, and demonstrate precision. The math EOY focuses entirely on conceptual understanding, fluency, and application.
What can we do to answer the question of why students are taking the PARCC test again? Educate the parents. Through whatever means has proven to be successful in your district, whether it be through letters sent home, website posting, instant alerts, or parent meetings, assist parents in understanding the tasks and item types of the PBA and EOY. If parents understand the reasoning behind the two tests, they will be more likely to support their child’s taking of the test. A parent and a child who understand the test are more likely to take it seriously, which will result in more relevant results to use effectively.
Jennifer Caldwell
Executive Director
Standards Solution
Standards Solution
