Eastern making final preparations for upcoming PARCC exam
The Eastern Camden County Regional School District is in the final stages of preparing for the upcoming Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career exam.
According to Robert Cloutier, director of curriculum, instruction and professional development for the district, the technology department has been working hard for more than two years laying the foundation to make the examination possible.
“Now, as it is approaching, we have to make sure that we are prepared in all respects,” Cloutier said.
Next month the PARCC test will be administered to all students in New Jersey grades three through 11, replacing the former standardized New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge test for lower grades and the High School Proficiency Assessment for those in high school grades nine through 11.
Two major differences with the transition to the PARCC test is students will take the examinations twice a year, once in March and once in late April or early May, and the test itself is entirely computer based.
The test is a result of a group of 20 states, New Jersey included, that first came together and developed a “common core” set of K-12 assessments in math and language arts with the goal of preparing students for a career or college beyond high school.
While multiple states have since decided to not administer the PARCC assessment, New Jersey is still scheduled to move forward with the test.
For the Eastern district, teachers will have a half-day of in-service on Monday, March 2, during which all teachers will be trained as test administrators, as many teachers will be directly administering the test upon the days of the examinations.
The following day, March 3, teachers and students will also run a practice PARCC testing day for both English and math, using the special schedule designed specifically for the tests.
“It’s going to be important because our bell schedule is going to be very different,” Cloutier said. “This is an unusual testing format. We’ve never tested this number of students while actually conducting classes as well and locations have changed.”
As for students whose parents have refused to let them take the test, which has been a controversial issue in various districts across the state, those students will be moved to the Performing Arts Center during the test.
“It’s approximately 12–15 parents who have made that request at this time, and we will use the Performing Arts Center as an alternative location that will be supervised during the testing time,” Cloutier said.
In total, the district will be testing 1,496 students during the week of March 9–13 with three tests in language arts and two tests in math for the first round, with the same students tested again from April 20–23 with two tests in language arts and two tests in math.
Cloutier said the tests would be administered on 550 iPads, with three different testing sessions available to test all freshmen, sophomores and juniors.
“Issues of time, space, the number of test administrators that we’ll need — it’s all pretty compressive,” Cloutier said.
According to Cloutier, the district’s 493 seniors, who are exempt from the tests, will still be in the building during the March and April examination periods, although about 230 will be in Florida on their senior trip on March 9 and 10, and the test schedule was designed to disrupt their class periods as little as possible.
The district has also met with teachers regarding instruction during students’ class periods when they are not taking the tests, and there will be no tests or quizzes during that time.
“It’s going to be certainly an unusual week, so no tests or quizzes in grades or nine through 11 classes, and teachers have been very flexible in understanding the needs here, and classrooms projects and activities will be recommended,” Cloutier said.
Those looking for more information can visit the district’s website schedule templates, PARCC video tutorials information from state regarding the test and more at www.eccrsd.us/family/parcc.
