PARCC Assessment: Yes, It's Coming, Yes, You Can Prepare

Soooo, I don't want to freak anybody out, but if you live in:

• Arizona
• New Mexico
• Colorado
• Oklahoma
• North Dakota
• Arkansas
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Alabama
• Georgia
• Florida
• Tennessee
• Kentucky
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• New York
• Massachusetts
• New Jersey
• Delaware
• Maryland
• Washington DC

You are only a year and a half away from a new state mandated test, called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC from here forward) assessment. That's right, your state testing is about to change, and the change will be dramatic.

What makes this test difference is, well, a few things. First of all, it's computer based. That's right, students will be taking the high stakes test online. Plus, now, when we want to compare data across states, we won't be comparing apples to oranges to bananas. We will be comparing states using the identical assessment. So for those 22 states and DC, greater accountability is at hand.

But don't freak out! It's good news (hopefully). When the PARCC Assessment goes live during the 2014-2015 school year, each of those listed states will be fully aligned to the Common Core (CCSS from here forward). 

We're talking about an assessment that will be taken in grades 3-12 by over 25 million students (according to the website).

I highly recommend teachers from any one of those states listed above to go to the PARCC website (which I've linked to twice, you can click the logo or the other link... oh heck, HERE IT IS AGAIN). Start digging through it and see what's waiting for us all right around the bend. 2014 is a lot closer than you think, A LOT CLOSER!!!!