WESTFIELD – Last night The Westfield School Committee was given insight into the pilot testing program that will soon be rolled out in selected classrooms in the city.
Commonly referred to by it’s acronym PARCC, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers is an exam that will be given to over one million students in grades 3 through 11, throughout nearly 16,000 schools in 14 states and the District of Columbia.
Approximately 350 districts in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with over 1,100 schools and 75,000 students, will be participating, with nearly 700 schools set to administer computer-based exams, while nearly 400 schools will administer the test using paper and pencil.
The School Committee received a presentation from Denise Ruszala, the director of assessment and accountability for the city’s schools. Ruszala sought to help clarify the objectives of the pilot assessment exam and to answer any questions from the Committee.
“The exam will include two summative assessment components for use starting in the 2014-2015 school year,” said Ruszala, in reference to a performance-based assessment that began earlier that day in several classrooms around the city, and an end-of-year assessment which will begin May 5.
“The tests measure problem-solving and critical thinking skills, give timely feedback to teachers and students on strengths and weaknesses, and allow teachers to better meet individual student needs,” she said.
Ruszala said that the exam will help determine whether students are on track for college and careers, and will include a writing component for each grade level tested.
“(The PARCC exam) will allow comparison across schools, districts and states,” she said.
The performance-based assessment component of the exam will end on April 11 and focuses on writing in English language arts (ELA) and “multi-step, real world problems in math.” The May 5 end-of-year assessment will end on June 6, and is set to feature reading comprehension in ELA, along with conceptual understanding in math.
“The performance-based assessment in ELA will be writing essays drawing evidence from sources, including multi-media, while the math PBA (performance based assessmnet) will involve solving multi-step problems that require reasoning and addressing real world situations,” Ruszala said. “The end-of-year (EOY) component in ELA will demonstrate comprehension of literacy and informational texts. The EOY math exam will demonstrate understanding of concepts, fluency and application of knowledge.”
In Westfield, two classrooms of fourth-graders at Highland Elementary School have begun the math performance-based assessment on paper, while four classes, two in algebra and geometry each, have begun taking online performance-based assessments at Westfield High School.
Students in four algebra classes have also begun a performance-based assessment online at Westfield Vocational-Technical High School. These students are also set to take the end-of-year exam online.
Meanwhile, two classrooms of third-graders at Southampton Road School will be taking math end-of-year assessments on paper, while two classes of fourth-graders at Juniper Park Elementary will be taking a paper end-of-year assessment.
In the middle school ranks, four classrooms at North Middle, two in both sixth and eighth grades, will be taking end-of-year online assessments, with the sixth-graders focusing on English language arts, and the eighth-graders taking on the math exam. Their counterparts at South Middle will also be conducting the end-of-year online pilot exam, with two classes in both seventh and eighth grade tackling the English language arts and math tests, respectively.
Ruszala’s hope for the exam is for teachers and students alike to “be heard.”
“Thousands of educators across PARCC states are reviewing PARCC questions,” she said, reciting from the presentation. “The field test is another chance to provide feedback on the development of new tests. Students and teachers will be asked to takes surveys about their experience with the field test when they are over.”
Ruszala laid out the transition plan for the evaluation and potential implementation of the test, which will be based on the results of the field tests.
“Field-test data will be analyzed in early fall and the board will receive updates on the field operational test that will include an assessment of whether PARCC is on track to measure college and career readiness,” Ruszala said of the first pilot exams.
She added that in the winter and spring of 2015, Massachusetts schools will administer the first operational PARCC assessments to students in grades 3 through 8, while tenth-graders will continue to take the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam.
“The standard-setting for PARCC tests and analysis of the operational data will occur in summer and early fall of 2015, Ruszala said, adding that the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will then vote on whether to formally adopt the exam. “Spring of 2016 will see the administration of the PARCC operational tests for grades 3 through 8, with tenth-graders continuing to take the MCAS to qualify for the competency determination.”
“It’s across the country. There’s backlashes on the Common Core coming out. We’re in an era when big government is stepping into everybody’s lives,” said Mayor Daniel M. Knapik after the meeting. “It’s interesting in America, schools and education have always been the primacy of the local school board. So if you look at history, in some districts you read certain kinds of books, and in other districts, they burned them.”
“I think there’s a recognition that we’re in a global world and you need to benchmark on a global standard,” he said. “I’m not sure all the country has caught up. I don’t always think that thinking locally is the way to go.”
“I think we need give it a chance,” said Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion. “We need to get more information. We need to give them an opportunity to develop a test that has merit for our kids’ future. We need to know if they’re career and college ready.”
“I want to get more information, and we’re only going to get more information by running this pilot,” she added. “Am I happy about how much time we spend on testing and how much it costs? No. There has to be a better way.”
“That’s my investment,” she said. “What’s a better way?”
