The Mendon Upton Regional School District discussed PARCC, the PARCC field test, and MCAS on Monday, November 4.
What is PARCC? PARCC is the test proposed to replace MCAS which is aligned with the Common Core Curriculum. In the spring of 2014 a selected group of MURSD students in grades 3, 5, 6 and 8 will participate in the state mandated PARCC field test.
The district can choose to have students who participate in the PARC field test opt out of the MCAS for the subjects they are testing in. The question at hand; would it be wise to opt out of MCAS for this group?
The conclusion – probably not. According to MURSD Superintendent Dr. Maruszczak (Dr. M) it’s problematic to opt out for both the student and the district. Dr. M. said, “Please keep in mind that we are a relatively small district, if you choose to opt out of MCAS for the field test it would leave the district with much less useful decision… MCAS is well established with well-established standards and gives up a lot of useful information,” Dr. Mr. recommends the district proceed with MCAS as usual stating, “MCAS is still the test of record where the PARCC field test is a test of practice.”
Lisa, a Nipmuc High School representative attending the meeting, was concerned having the two 8th grade classes opt out of MCAS would result in lower 10th grade MCAS scores. Lisa reminded the committee students who score the highest on MCAS have a chance to receive a financial scholarship to selected state schools. Opting out might mean a student who may have qualified for the scholarship may miss out because they had one less practice taking MCAS than other students.
Dr. M. pointed out another important fact in deciding whether or not to opt out; the state board of education has not yet voted to approve PARCC as the statewide assessment. Part of the field test the students will be participating in will determine if the PARCC assessment will be chosen to replace MCAS. The final decision to officially adopt PARCC will be made in the fall of 2015, roughly two years from now.
School committee members were frustrated after learning PARCC has not yet been adopted as the official assessment test. Member Liana Moore wanted to why we couldn’t opt out of the field test and asked, “What gives them the authority to tell us we can’t opt out?” Member Chris Russo said, “So we have to deliver this disaster to our students, teachers, administrators, and their families. We have to deliver this train wreck to them. This is a mess, this is a real mess, but we don’t have a choice.”
Member Diane Duncan asked, “What is the alternative to PARCC?” Could they come back next year and say this didn’t work and we now have to start from scratch?
According to Dr. M., there are currently two assessments aligned with Common Core which are PARCC and Smarter Balance. Altering MCAS to fit the Common Core curriculum is not an option at this point as it would require a substantial amount of time and resources. Joining a state consortium which has been federally financed through the Race to the Top program is a cost-effective solution for the state.
Dr. M. explained the goal with the field test would be evaluating questions. If the questions are not good then the data is skewed. Dr. M said, “I think the important thing in communicating this moving forward is that this year our focus remains to be the MCAS and with respect to PARCC the value of it is our teachers, our kids getting a sense of what the test will look like.”
Liana Moore responded, “But that’s not valuable if we don’t even know that this is going to be the test.” Dr. M. responded, “Right, I’m not going to argue with you.”
What facts does the district know as of now?
The class of 2018 will be the last class required to pass MCAS to graduate, which is the current 8th grade class at Miscoe.
The district will not be mandated to move to the PARCC assessment as previously thought for the school year 14/15. Rather schools in Massachusetts will need to choose between continuing to test in MCAS or to move forward with PARCC even though the state will not make a final decision on PARCC until the fall of 2015.
The quote of the night was made by member Liana Moore, “Is it safe to say that this field test is no walk in the park?”
The school committee plans to discuss this further in future meetings and also plans to make a presentation to the public regarding the testing group and whatever decision they make and why. At this point it appears they are leaning towards having all students test in MCAS even if they are participating in the field test and to remain with MCAS until required to move to PARCC, if PARCC is adopted, although no formal decisions were made.
The committee as a whole expressed it is important for parents, teachers, and students to know the emphasis is on MCAS and the PARCC field test is simply that; a field test. Students taking the field test won’t be scored and the district won’t be getting any feedback so there should be no stress involved, it is merely a practice test. The PARCC field test will take place after MCAS and will not interfere with MCAS testing or prep work.
Related posts https://uptondaily.com/2013/09/13/move-over-mcas-here-comes-parcc/
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