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PARCC Releases Info About Non Summative Assessment Components

• By Leila Meyer
• 07/09/13

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) has released information about the non-summative components of its assessment system. These tools and resources are intended to help students master the skills and knowledge required by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

The four components include:

• The Mid-Year Assessment;
• The K-1 Formative Assessment Tools and the Diagnostic Assessments in Grades 2-8;
• The Speaking and Listening Assessments; and
• The Assessment Professional Development (PD) Modules.

The Mid-Year Assessment is an optional assessment for grades 3 to 11. It lets students and teachers use PARCC's constructed response and machine-scorable items for formative purposes. It's performance-based and focused on difficult-to-assess standards, according to PARCC, and it's designed to help educators make decisions related to curriculum, instruction, and professional learning. The Mid-Year Assessment and related support tools for teachers will be available to states and districts for the 2014–2015 school year.

The K-1 Formative Assessment Tools and Diagnostic Assessments in Grades 2–8 are designed to determine how well students have learned or are prepared to learn key content and skills, so teachers can use this information to inform their classroom instruction. They will be field tested in the 2014–2015 school year, and states and districts will have the option of using them in the 2015–2016 school year.

The Speaking and Listening Assessments are designed to measure students' ability to understand and present complex information, ideas, and evidence by listening and speaking. The procurement for this component will be released this summer. It will be field tested in early 2015 and ready for use in the 2015–2016 school year. It will be available for kindergarten through grade 12 but will be required for grades 3 to 11 only.

The Assessment Professional Development (PD) Modules are designed to help teachers, administrators, and school site testing coordinators transition to the PARCC assessments. There will be five PD Modules: an overview module, one for each of the three non-summative assessments, and one about the PARCC accessibility system. They will be available in June 2014, with updates to follow after the initial release.

PARCC is a consortium of 22 states working together to develop a common set of K–12 assessments related to CCSS for English language arts and math education. The PARCC assessments will be ready for states to administer during the 2014-2015 school year.

Further information about PARCC's non-summative assessment components can be found on PARCC's site.