Computer screens will replace pencils and free response questions will join multiple choice when the PARCC assessment replaces the MSA as the standardized test for Maryland students next school year.
The assessments will cover English and mathematics in grades three through 11.

It’s unclear at this point how the assessments will be implemented for high schoolers, said assistant principal Kathy McHale. She predicts that high school students will take the PARCC assessments at least once for English and for math, but not every year like the MSA.

Students will take the HSAs for the time being, but the Maryland State Department of Education hasn’t yet decided what will happen to them long term, said spokesperson William Reinhard. Biology and U.S. Government HSAs will most likely remain because PARCC doesn’t assess these subjects, said McHale, who is also the school’s testing coordinator.

PARCC, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, is a consortium of 19 states that came together to develop an assessment system aligned to the Common Core State Standards, which have been adopted by 45 states. Educators designed the standards as a national model to be relevant to the real world, with the objective of preparing students for college and careers. MCPS has implemented the standards in the form of Curriculum 2.0.

The new assessments will be administered by computer, making them cheaper, easier to grade and more interactive, PARCC spokesperson Lesley Muldoon said. One random class from each county school will participate in a field test of the assessments this spring. High schools will be included in the testing.

The Common Core State Standards are more challenging than the previous curriculum covered by the MSA, educators say.

“Once the new assessments are ready for full implementation in 2014-15, initial scores are expected to be lower than those on the MSA,” Lillian Lowery, Maryland school superintendent, predicted in a July press release.

The English sections of the assessments will include selected response questions and writing prompts that require students to synthesize literature or nonfiction sources and the passages will be more complex than their MSA counterparts, Muldoon said.

“Maryland has a pretty good state test, but some kids in their states don’t have any writing at all on their standardized tests, which we think doesn’t really help you guys get ready for college,” Muldoon said.

Math questions will focus heavily on concept and application, as well as directly building on concepts covered in previous years. Instead of multiple choice, questions will take advantage of the test’s computer interface by including items that require graphing, drag-and-drop responses and typing in an answer, according to PARCC’s website.

Robert Obstgarten, a fifth grade teacher at Carderock Springs Elementary School, appreciates how Curriculum 2.0 and the PARCC assessments require reasoning instead of memorization.

“Before, if you handed students a new situation, they didn’t know how to pick and choose from strategies they knew,” he said.

To prepare students for the assessments, PARCC has 75 interactive sample test items available on their website and will release a full-length practice PARCC assessment for each grade in March.