The New Jersey Department of Education has been participating with other states in the Partnerships for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers developing student assessments that will replace the existing High School Proficiency Assessment in 2014–2015. The online assessment will test English I, II, III, and, Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II twice per year while the students are taking that course. The Lenape Regional High School District will be conducting the following to prepare for next year:
March 6 infrastructure test: On the last day of this year’s HSPA exam freshman, sophomores, and juniors will have an opportunity to logon to a practice PARCC assessment similar to what will be administered next year. This will develop a familiarity with the new online format as well as test the LRHSD technology infrastructure.
PARCC field test: All four schools in the LRHSD have been chosen to take part in a field test of the new upcoming assessment. The field test will be administered to over one million students across the country and will not be reported for scoring or accountability. This will give the district’s students, teachers and administrators an opportunity to experience a small part of the PARCC administration. The field test will be composed of two administrations. The first administration, the performance based assessment, will be given one day between March 24 and April 11. The second administration, the end of year assessment, will be administered one day between May 5 and June 6. The parents of students will be notified by letter if their class was chosen for the pilot. The PARCC practice test will include technology-enhanced items and will be delivered using the same technology platform that will be used for field testing, allowing students and educators in all PARCC states to become more familiar with the types of items that will appear on the PARCC assessments.
For more information about PARCC Task Prototypes and Sample Items, please visit www.parcconline.org/samples/item-task-prototypes.
For general information about PARCC, go to www.parcconline.org/about-parcc.
