PARCC vs. MCAS

Alpha Cepeda

On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to adopt a hybrid MCAS-PARCC test. The vote came after months of debate over whether to adopt MCAS or the new PARCC test to assess Massachusetts students proficiency in the areas of math, reading, writing, and science. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education agreed to incorporate aspects of PARCC into the new MCAS assessment. The new hybrid test is expected to be released by 2018.

After the vote Linda Noonan, executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education and a supporter of PARCC, said “I’m like everybody else: trying to figure out what this all means.”

Barbara Madeloni, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association and a supporter of MCAS, argues that this “hybrid” is really just a ploy, saying that it will contain a majority of PARCC and aspects of MCAS will not even be seen. “Let’s not be deceived” Madeloni said.

The decision Tuesday marks the first change in Massachusetts standardized testing in almost two decades. The administration of the new test will begin in 2017 in compliance with the Massachusetts federal law requiring the state only administer a single standardized assessment. MCAS will still remain the graduation standard through the class of 2019.

“Assessment should be rigorous, but it should not be intentionally difficult, to limit students,” said a senior at Everett’s Pioneer Charter School of Science. Families, student, and teachers are hoping they take this statement to heart over the next year and a half, while they wait to see what the “hybrid” will look like.

                                                 

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Labels: Politics