The Mendon Upton Regional School Committee decided to hold off making a decision on whether to jump on board with the Common Core educational standardized test called Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) for next school year.
Currently the Department of Education is keeping MCAS in place as a high school graduation requirement for the class of 2018 (current 8th graders). The last MCAS would be administered in the spring of 2016. PARCC testing would then take it’s place.
The question is how will districts choose to test for grades 3-8.
During the School Committee meeting on Monday May 19 Superintendent Dr. Maruszczak advised the committee that Mitchell D. Chester, the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, is looking for districts to make that decision by June 30. Districts can choose to test with PARCC next year for grades 3-8 or continue testing with MCAS. All districts in Mass are scheduled to implement PARCC for the 2015/16 school year.
An interesting point though is Commissioner Chester emphatically insists the move to PARCC is still not a done deal for the state. Although Dr. Maruszczak did point out that Mass has invested a lot of time and money in this project. When committee Member Chris Russo asked Dr. Maruszczak what percentage he would place on whether PARCC would replace MCAS for the school year 15/16 Dr. Maruszczak replied “95 percent.”
The committee will look at three possible options. One, keep the status quo with MCAS for all students for the 14/15 school year. Two move to the PARCC test for grades 3-8 but keep it a paper and pencil test. Three do the PARCC testing using the online test.
Dr. Maruszczak is reluctance to go with option three because of the issues/feedback the administration received from the PARCC Pilot test done in the district. Dr. Maruszczak said the feedback he received indicated the PARCC website was “more of a website than an app” and the kids had issues “timing out or would be dropped off the Pearson website.” There were also functionality issues; scrolling not working properly.
Committee members did ask a few questions before moving off the topic. Member Grace Maneri wanted to know if the district did decide to go with MCAS next year if there was any chance the state would mandate sampling again, like this year. Dr. Maruszczak said, “No, they are swearing no double testing.”
Member Diane Duncan asked if the district had the ability to test all of the elementary kids on iPads and the answer was no, not for grades three and four.
Member Grace Maneri asked, “How does this impact in what we do in the school year in regards to teaching. ” Miscoe Hill Principal Meyer responded “For Miscoe it doesn’t impact it.” Maneri followed up with, “So does the MCAS reflect the Common Core?” Meyer replied, “Almost completely.” According to Meyer there were some areas that did not overlap in math but in ELA it wasn’t an issue. Meyer said, “We are doing the Common Core, the test is the test and we should not be teaching to the test.”
Dr. Maruszczak replied, “I think Ann is right, I think we have had significant success in transitioning to the Common Core Standards. Keep in mind for Mass, which already had far superior standards in their curriculum framework, it wasn’t really a quantum leap particularly in ELA. I think that part of the philosophical discussion we have to have as a district but also as a school committee is assessment really does drive instruction….it really is a balance act. What do I think, I think we are having this test come in 15/16 whether we like it or not. The question is do you want another year for MCAS to prepare effectively or to you want to kind of dive in so that your teachers, so that your kids, so that the system kind of has more knowledge of what’s coming down the road. It’s a little bit of a heavy topic.”
October 1, 2014 is the hard deadline for the decision but districts who make the decision to go with PARCC after June 30th are not guaranteed the test because of limited resources. PARCC is more expensive than MCAS.
Dr. Maruszczak’s intent was to bring this topic forward at the June 9 meeting so committee members can have a thoughtful informed discussion. This matter will be discussed at length at that time.
UPTON DAILY 
Peabody schools are quick to stick with MCAS
Superintendent is first in line to tell state that district rejects PARCC test
By Bella Travaglini | Globe Correspondent May 18, 2014
Following the recommendation of its school superintendent, Peabody became the first school district in the state to stick with MCAS next year instead of administering a controversial new student assessment test.
The Peabody School Committee last week voted unanimously against giving students the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exam, which could replace the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System statewide in 2016.
“Every principal in every Peabody school is in agreement with the superintendent that we should abandon PARCC,” said Dave McGeney, a School Committee member. “It’s just not going to work, and the more people hear about it, the less they like it.”
In an interview, Superintendent Joe Mastrocola said he wanted to notify the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on May 14 — the first day the state was accepting decisions on whether districts would be using MCAS or the PARCC test next year — to put the debate to rest so that educators could concentrate on what they do best: teach.
Mastrocola said students have done well with the MCAS, and that it is written into state law that passing the test is required to graduate. Mastrocola also noted that one of the provisions the state has built in for districts who use PARCC next year is a “held harmless” clause, which means that PARCC test results will not count if students perform worse than they had previously on MCAS.
“This stops the distraction of a national debate,” said Mastrocola. “We got a glance at PARCC and we want to be held accountable. Accountability is number one for us.”
Jonathan Considine, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s chief of staff, said school districts have been given the option to administer either the PARCC or the MCAS in 2015. The PARCC test was developed by a consortium of states as a result of new federal education standards called Common Core — aimed at preparing students for college and careers — which Massachusetts adopted in 2010.
With the PARCC field test already underway this spring, Considine expects that some will want to give their students another go at the test before the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education assesses the results from the two-year trial and takes a vote on whether PARCC will replace MCAS. The vote is scheduled at the end of the 2015 school year.
There is a final deadline of Oct. 1 for all school districts to decide on whether they will administer the PARCC test or stay with MCAS for the 2014-2015 school year.
“What we need is a representative sample, between 10 to 15 percent of students [to take the test] to reliably compare,” said Considine. “Peabody went in one direction and we respect that, but we already know of districts that are going to opt for the PARCC test.”
Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, thinks most superintendents have an inclination in favor of one or the other, but have stopped short of making a recommendation before they have more information.
“We have been working with the commissioner and his staff and have a meeting on Monday to discuss a number of critical questions,” said Scott, referring to such things as how long districts have to implement technology for the online PARCC test, and the correlation between MCAS and PARCC test scores. The superintendents association also is funding a PARCC test field study in the Burlington and Revere public schools through the Cambridge-based Rennie Center for Research & Policy , he said.
“Whatever happens from here, we will not go back to the old MCAS,” said Scott. “There will have to be at least an upgrade of the MCAS to align with Common Core.”
In March, the Peabody School Committee voted to give parents the right to allow their children to opt out of taking the PARCC field test. In April, the committee voted to ask state officials to review a possible conflict of interest on the part of Mitchell Chester, the Massachusetts commissioner, who is chairman of the 25-state PARCC governing board.
Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Association of School Committeesasked the department of education for a list of vendors who have access to student data collected by districts and through assessment tests. The department said it planned to release that information by mid-May.
Bella Travaglini can be reached at bellatrav@ gmail.com.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/north/2014/05/17/peabody-says-switch-from-mcas-parcc/l0f5Vfb2F2n9Mwj5dJrCLO/story.html