There’s a new assessment test coming this way so the days of MCAS are numbered.
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) will replace the MCAS assessment. This change is part of the State’s adoption of the Common Core Standards, a national program to improve the public school curriculum and better prepare students for college and careers in the 21st century.
Starting in the 2014/2015 school year the PARCC assessment will be administered to grades 3 through 11. The assessment is reported to focus on the ability of students to think critically rather than just memorize facts; asking the students to answer a variety of questions, show their work, and explain their answer.
According to Superintendent Dr. Maruszczak the students will no longer be assessed as advanced, proficient, needs improvement, or warning but rather assessed on the degree of readiness for colleges and careers. The mindset of the assessment is that it will provide a summary of the student’s skills, knowledge, and how it relates to the benchmarks in Common Core.
The Mendon Upton School District will participate in a PARCC pilot program this year. The district decided to participate in the program even though there are mixed feelings of administering additional testing. The school committee members felt there is value administering the pilot so the district is not going in blind next year. School committee member Chris Russo asked Dr. Maruszczak to make sure the district would see the results of the testing for without the results it would not make sense to participate in the pilot.
The PARCC pilot assessment will take place after MCAS and will not interfere with MCAS testing or prep work. The pilot program will be given in addition to MCAS testing. The assessment will be administered to students in grades 5, 6, and 8 in an online format. Students in grade 3 at Clough will also take part in the pilot but their test will be the traditional pencil and paper style.
For additional information about PARCC and Common Core
UPTON DAILY 
FYI Silver Spruce Montessori has Elementary openings. IF you have any intrest in learning about Montessori methodology, you should visit their website. http://www.silverspruce.org/ Yes. I know, Not all families can afford this. Perhaps it’s time some FREE charter schools -that are grant funded, were started that embrace a more Montessori methodology or one that focuses on keeping the child engaged and their fire to learn burning bright, not on test scores and rewards. This new world we live in requires innovative leaders, not people who are forced to think inside the test.
Testing is only one piece of the stress puzzle. The demands are getting greater and greater and are happening at earlier and earlier grades. For example, why is it okay for our high schoolers to spend six hours a day in school and then come home and have three to five hours of homework on top of that? And what about those kids who somehow manage sports with practice and games every afternoon and then hours of homework on top of that? And then there are the kids who decide they can’t participate in extra curricular’s because the academic demands are too great and they don’t have time because they not only have all this work but they need to find some time to sleep? Why is it okay for Kindergarten age kids not to have outdoor time because there is too much “Curriculum” that needs to be covered? Do we wonder why kids are more stressed and HATE school? Just my .02. .
Wow more testing?? I am glad my children go to Montessori school. No wonder the rates of children being home schooled has gone up. I feel sorry for all the stress this is putting on young people. It’s funny that kids in public schools are getting tested more than ever and are under stress more than ever- there are reports of children needing medication to cope with stress more than there has ever been, yet the national averages are either the same as previous years or worse. Like many things in this world forcing a set of curriculum and testing on kids, is not what improves learning, what improves learning is giving our hard working teachers the room and freedom to do their job!
Unfortunately, rates of child psychiatric admissions in hospitals are also going up. No idea of any correlation or studies of such, so certainly can’t imply that. But it does seem that children’s lives are far more stressed than in years past. When my child, who never gets sick and never missed school, came home sick from school because of the stress of MCAS, I knew it was time for us to make other arrangements.