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PARCC Unveils Common Core Assessment Blueprints and Test Specs

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) has released blueprints and test specifications for its English and math assessments. The documents are intended to help teachers prepare students for the new online assessments that will begin in 2014-2015.

PARCC assessments are aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and are designed to measure college and career readiness. The English language arts (ELA) and literacy blueprints provide teachers with information about PARCC ELA rubrics, as well as guidelines and worksheets to help them select ELA texts appropriate for instruction. The math documents include evidence tables to help teachers understand how PARCC integrates math practices and content and how standards can be combined.

Both the English and math documents are intended to give teachers more information about the reporting categories planned for the PARCC summative assessments. "These materials allow teachers to see 'under the hood' of the assessment, to understand how the different elements work together to assess student mastery of the CCSS," said Wendi Anderson, director for PARCC/Innovative Assessment at the Arizona Department of Education, in a prepared statement.

The new PARCC blueprints and test assessments are the result of several rounds of reviews and revisions conducted over the last year and a half by classroom teachers, higher education faculty, PARCC staff members and consultants, and ETS and Pearson staff. According to PARCC, the documents reflect "the highest quality alignment to the Common Core State Standards and the vision of the next-generation PARCC assessment system."

PARCC plans to continue to update the blueprints and test specifications as part of the assessment development process.

Further information about the PARCC assessment blueprints and test specifications can be found on the PARCC site.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

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