Important announcements
Parents Worry About PARCC Testing:
The new PARCC test, aligned to the National Common Core Curriculum Standards, is causing anxiety throughout New Jersey. Many concerned parents and teachers worry that students will score poorly on the test because of its unfamiliar format and increased difficulty.
As always, however, knowing what our kids are facing will help us to prepare them for the new testing experience.
• Who will administer the test: The PARCC consortium has selected Pearson Publishing to administer and score the test. Pearson will provide the necessary materials to districts, then receive the completed tests and score them.
• Who will be tested: Students from in third grade through 11th grade will take the PARCC tests in language arts and math.
• How it will work: Students will be permitted to take the tests on a range of approved technology platforms, ranging from desktop computers to tablets.
Students will sit for the test in two sections during the year, once in the spring to complete the performance-based section of the test, including writing, and a second time at the end of the year for a test of content and knowledge.
• How long are the tests? In all, students will sit for testing nine different times during the year -- five times for language arts and four for math. The duration is more than eight hours, three hours more than the current testing.
More testing, with a new format and more difficult material, is enough to give anyone who either has children or works with them indigestion. However, all is not lost. Parents and educators can work with enrichment curriculum as well as the new materials many schools have been using to implement the Common Core.
SchoolPlus Can Help:
In our Math and English classes we distributed the books targeting directly preparation for PARCC. Just today we brought Math Assessment books and Common Core Curriculum books for this year test. And Jan and Feb classes will be focused on the test preparation using those books.
Please ask our teachers any Q about the test.
Best regards,
Olga I.Fookson
The new PARCC test, aligned to the National Common Core Curriculum Standards, is causing anxiety throughout New Jersey. Many concerned parents and teachers worry that students will score poorly on the test because of its unfamiliar format and increased difficulty.
As always, however, knowing what our kids are facing will help us to prepare them for the new testing experience.
• Who will administer the test: The PARCC consortium has selected Pearson Publishing to administer and score the test. Pearson will provide the necessary materials to districts, then receive the completed tests and score them.
• Who will be tested: Students from in third grade through 11th grade will take the PARCC tests in language arts and math.
• How it will work: Students will be permitted to take the tests on a range of approved technology platforms, ranging from desktop computers to tablets.
Students will sit for the test in two sections during the year, once in the spring to complete the performance-based section of the test, including writing, and a second time at the end of the year for a test of content and knowledge.
• How long are the tests? In all, students will sit for testing nine different times during the year -- five times for language arts and four for math. The duration is more than eight hours, three hours more than the current testing.
More testing, with a new format and more difficult material, is enough to give anyone who either has children or works with them indigestion. However, all is not lost. Parents and educators can work with enrichment curriculum as well as the new materials many schools have been using to implement the Common Core.
SchoolPlus Can Help:
In our Math and English classes we distributed the books targeting directly preparation for PARCC. Just today we brought Math Assessment books and Common Core Curriculum books for this year test. And Jan and Feb classes will be focused on the test preparation using those books.
Please ask our teachers any Q about the test.
Best regards,
Olga I.Fookson