Today, the U.S. Department of Education awarded a consortium of 26 states, including Louisiana, a $170 million grant to fund the development of new common assessments. The group of 26 states, the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), will collectively develop new common assessments. According to the USDOE announcement, a majority of the $350 million grant - set aside as a separate component of the Race to the Top package - will actually be awarded to two groups for the purpose of creating common assessments aligned to the recently published Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics.
"Along with our partners in PARCC, we welcome this announcement," State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek said. "This approach -- allowing states to collaborate and leverage resources -- makes good sense given the complexity, extent and importance of this task. While Louisiana's accountability program has been nationally recognized, and our current assessments are central to this ranking, this effort will allow us to improve. To adequately prepare our students to compete with their peers nationally and internationally, Louisiana's testing program must be meaningful, based on high standards comparable to those of other states, capable of informing and improving the quality of instruction in every classroom and provide teachers and families with more frequent measures of the progress of their students and children. Based on PARCC's proposal and this funding, I'm confident that we can achieve these objectives. "
The key focus of PARCC's approach is the development of shared assessments to ensure students graduate from high school prepared to succeed in their post-secondary and career pursuits. In fact, more than 200 higher education institutions representing more than 1,000 university, community and technical college campuses have signed on to assist in developing the assessments. Through the involvement of these higher education groups, PARCC's aim is for these groups to recognize students' performance on the new assessments as an indicator of their college readiness.
"One of the most considerable tasks we can accomplish is ensuring our students are graduating with the knowledge and skills required for today's 21st century post-secondary and work environments," Board of Elementary and Secondary Education President Keith Guice said. "These assessments will not only determine whether students are on track, but they will also provide parents and schools with a clear measure of whether their children are prepared to succeed in the goals they plan to pursue after high school."
PARCC's grant application outlines a computer-based system that will not only measure student achievement at the end of the school year, but will provide for periodic measures of student progress throughout the school year. Since more than half the states in the country are participating in the Partnership, the assessments will provide states with a common metric for gauging the performance of their students. For the first time, meeting standards in one state will mean students meet standards in at least 25 other states.
Published in early June, the Common Core State Standards have been adopted by the District of Columbia and thirty-five states, including Louisiana. Development of the Common Core State Standards was the result of an extensive state-led collaboration to establish a single set of clear academic standards for ELA and mathematics. The common assessments that are being developed as part of the PARCC initiative will be used to measure how well 3rd-12th grade students in Louisiana and other partnering states perform based on the grade level standards outlined by the Common Core State Standards.
Louisiana is among the 11 Governing States that will lead the development of the assessment system for PARCC. Governing States have pledged to fully implement PARCC assessments by the 2014-2015 school year. Other Governing States are Arizona, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Tennessee. Florida will serve as the fiscal agent for PARCC.
"By taking a leading role in this Partnership, Louisiana is not only vowing our support, but we are guiding the national direction of these assessments. We aim to secure Louisiana's place at the forefront of accountability by holding our students and ourselves to the highest standards," continued Pastorek.
For the 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013 and 2013-2104 school years, Louisiana will retain its current assessment system. Students in grades 3, 5, 6 and 7 will take the integrated Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (iLEAP) exam, students in grades 4 and 8 will take the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) exam, and students in grades 10 and 11 will take either the Graduation Exit Exam (GEE) or End-of-Course (EOC) tests. EOC exams are high-stakes tests for incoming freshmen in 2010-2011 and beyond. Beginning this school year, incoming freshmen will have to pass three EOC tests in the following categories: English II or English III, Algebra I or Geometry and Biology or American History, in order to earn their high school diplomas.
The Common Standards were adopted by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) in July. Louisiana plans to implement the standards by the2013-2014 school year. The adoption of Common Assessments will require a similar policy change by BESE in order for the assessments to be implemented by the 2014-2015 school year.
PARCC selected the nonprofit education reform organization Achieve to coordinate the collaborative work of the Partnership. Achieve is an independent, bipartisan, non-profit education reform organization based in Washington, D.C. that has been involved in the development of educational standards, including the Common Core State Standards.
The majority of the $170 million grant will be awarded collectively to the Partnership. Smaller amounts will be awarded to participating states to fund implementation of the assessments. While USDOE set aside $350 million for this federal grant, $330 million was awarded today.
Highlights of the new assessments include the following:
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Common metrics for student achievement, allowing for an "apples-to-apples" comparison among states.
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Students will take parts of the assessment at key times during the school year, closer to when they learn the material.
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Most of the new assessments will be designed to be administered by computer. This will enable a faster turnaround of results, and will also reduce costs for states.
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Teachers will have access to actionable assessment data much more frequently, allowing them to adjust instruction, individualize interventions and refine their lessons throughout the school year.
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Assessments will include sophisticated items and performance tasks to measure the standards more effectively. For example, during an ELA assessment, students may read materials, compose an essay and then present the results of that research and writing to their classmates, answering questions or engaging in debate.
For a more detailed summary of PARCC's proposal, please go to the following link: www.achieve.org/PARCCsummary. For details on the USDOE announcement, please go to www.ed.gov/news.
