The Mecca Of PARCC: The Assessment Page You Probably Skipped Over But NEED to Review

Today, I kicked myself about 15 times - I was having a talk with one of my coaches about PARCC requirements and realized that I had not visited my favorite page of the PARCC Online site (http://www.parcconline.org/about-parcc - NOT the PARCC Pearson site, which many of us are visiting multiple times a day).

The particular page that I am referring to is "The Assessment System" drop-down on the Assessment Tab.   This is a page that many will be tempted to skip to go to the practice exams, but this is a BIG mistake.  If you have already been using this as a resource, you might want to go back as it has been updated since the field testing.

What is on this page?

If you click on "Blueprints and Test Specs", you get a list of items including:
1.  a detailed description of the test items on PARCC with the points assignment
2.  the standards broken down into targeted objectives
3.  three really important literacy documents - the literacy text analysis worksheet, the informational text
        analysis worksheet, and the direction sheets on how to use these sheets to select texts.

These three groups of items are the guidelines that the assessment writers must use to create the PARCC exam.

If you click on "PLDs", you will get the performance level descriptors, which are detailed rubrics that describe exactly what student performance must look like in order to perform at levels 2, 3, 4, or 5.  The great thing about the Performance Level Descriptors is that they bring all of the resources together, so you can see the big picture of the assessment overall - something taking the practice test by itself cannot accomplish.

This resource is really the backbone of any Common Core planning that we are doing - it gives clear explanations of how the assessment interprets the standards and is the minimum that must be planned for in designing school based curriculum, instruction, and assessment.  It's a lot of information that will probably take all of us a couple of years to fully internalize, but definitely, in my opinion, the best free Common Core resource that we have access to.

So, take a glance and let me know if it makes you as giddy as it makes me.