What Does PARCC Mean for Higher Education? IBHE ICCB

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a group of states working together to develop a set of assessments that measure whether students are on track to be successful in college and their careers.

These high quality K–12 assessments in Mathematics and English Language Arts/Literacy give teachers, schools, students, and parents better information whether students are on track in their learning and for success after high school, and tools to help teachers customize learning to meet student needs.

Design of the Assessment System 4

PARCC will report results of summative assessments using 5 performance levels Grades 3-10: – 4 or above indicates a student is on track to be successful in the subsequent grade in each content area High school: ELA III and ALG II/ Integrated Math III – 4 or above will earn a College- and Career- Ready Determination intended to exempt students from placement testing and remediation at public postsecondary institutions – 3 and below may be targeted for early interventions Performance Levels 5

PARCC as a Measure of College Readiness How will we know that we can use PARCC assessments to measure college readiness? A level 4 on the PARCC high school assessment will be validated against the following standard: – A student who earns a 4 on the PARCC assessments has a 0.75 probability of earning college credit by attaining at least a grade of C or its equivalent in entry level, college- credit bearing courses. PARCC will conduct research studies to inform the standard setting and validation process including: – Postsecondary educators’ judgment study – Longitudinal Study of External Validity of the PARCC Performance Standards 6

A COMMON MEASURE OF COLLEGE READINESS Empowers students and parents with accurate information about college preparation Identifies students early who are not on-track to graduate ready for college and provide academic support in high school – “On track signals begin in 3 rd grade and continue through high school Exempts students from remediation who meet college readiness expectations Uses new information to support students in being successful in college

PLACEMENT NOT ADMISSION A College and Career Ready Determination on the PARCC assessments indicates: Mastery of the core competencies in the Common Core State Standards identified by postsecondary education faculty as prerequisites for and key to success in entry-level, credit-bearing courses in English and mathematics Readiness for placement into entry-level, credit-bearing courses in ELA and mathematics A College and Career Ready Determination will not: Determine admission to college or university Replace college/university tests to place students into higher level mathematics and English courses Address non-traditional students who delay enrollment 8

How Has Higher Education Been Engaged? Advisory Committee on College Readiness Since 2011 the Advisory Committee on College Readiness composed of State Higher Education Executive Officers and leaders of partners organizations in higher education have worked with the PARCC Governing Board to set policies to support the acceptance and use of the PARCC College and Career Ready assessments by PARCC state colleges and universities as an indicator of readiness for placement into first-year, credit-bearing courses by all colleges and universities across PARCC consortium states. Key Policy Decisions of the ACCR and the PARCC Governing Board: – Adoption of the College and Career Readiness Determination Policy (Adopted 10/25/2012) – Approval of the postsecondary studies for standard setting (10/16/2013) – Standard Setting – Validation 9

Importance: Why do you need to care about PARCC? Accountability—Completion Agenda Direct impacts – Better placement – Better supports Indirect impacts – New Learning Standards will lead to better prepared students only if K-12 assessments are CCSS-aligned

Next Steps For PARCC SEPTEMBER States launch PARCC SUMMER Model Content Frameworks Released AUGUST Item Prototypes Released APRIL Test Blueprints released We are here ! WINTER/SPRING Field Test/Practice Test Online SPRING First Administration of New Tests SUMMER Establishment of Cut Scores FALL Release of Diagnostic and Formative Assessments FALL Use of Cut Scores for IHE Placement 2016 APRIL PARCC Becomes Independent Non-Profit SUMMER PARCC Reports Research From Field Test Results 11

Timeline Milestones—PARCC cohort 1 Assessed spring 2015, 11 th grade Students apply to your institution AY Students matriculate at your institution fall 2016 First-year performance information is available fall 2017

Opportunities: Expand K-12 Partnerships Timely information about college readiness through high school will enable: – Identify students who need supports early on – Provide supports to students who are not on course to be CCR transition and bridge courses – Accelerate ready students dual or concurrent enrollment/other early college programs 13

Opportunities for Higher Education: Placement Testing and Remediation Decrease the use of placement testing on college campuses Exempt students from remediation Provide targeted, abbreviated remediation: −Student supports and learning pathways −Modular instruction −Student success courses −Co-requisite 14

How can we use PARCC results to enhance existing partnerships and alignment efforts? How can we engage our colleges to incorporate PARCC scores into placement policies? How can we engage our colleges to use PARCC results in developmental education reform efforts? K-12 and College Partnerships College Placement Dev Ed Reform PARCC – College Integration

Considerations Existing tools and information – Where will PARCC fit with what you use now? Information flow – How will PARCC results get to your institution and then to those who need them? Emerging research – PARCC – Other External – Internal

ACT English h/eng_01.html h/eng_01.html

ACT Math math_01.html math_01.html

Placement Instruments Compass – Accuplacer – oad/accuplacer-sample-questions-for- students.pdf oad/accuplacer-sample-questions-for- students.pdf other

Considerations Existing tools and information – Where will PARCC fit with what you use now? Information flow – How will PARCC results get to your institution and then to those who need them? Emerging research – PARCC – Other External – Internal

Reports In the first operational assessment year each state will receive scores; ISBE in Illinois. ISBE will distribute the scores to schools/districts. K-12 schools and districts will receive both printable and PDF versions of the score reports.

Reports For the first year, states will need to work out the logistics locally regarding how to transmit scores to higher ed. ISBE will communicate directly with higher education stakeholders regarding where scores will be held.

Reports For the first year, the data management and reporting system will not support electronic transfer with systems and institutions of higher education and permissions are not set up to address giving institutions of higher education access to a single student record. PARCC encourages institution of higher education to work with individual schools to receive PDF versions of the reports in the first year.

Reports PARCC plans to develop a task force of state leads from K-12 and higher education to work on state level solutions. Feedback from the field is essential.

Considerations Existing tools and information – Where will PARCC fit with what you use now? Information flow – How will PARCC results get to your institution and then to those who need them? Emerging research – PARCC – Other External – Internal

How will we know? PARCC will be validated against: – Score of 4 indicates a 0.75 probability of earning at least a C in entry-level course Research: – Postsecondary Educators’ Judgment Study – Longitudinal Study of External Validity of Performance Standards 26

Standard Setting  Standard Setting For High School Assessments  7/27/15-7/31/15  Meeting Duration: 4 days  Evidence Based Standard Setting  Results from research studies  K-12 and postsecondary expertise and knowledge about students and subject matter  Grade 11 ELA/Algebra II/Integrated Math III panels:  Eight grade-level teachers  Six higher education faculty and staff  Two technical/vocational educators  Four other stakeholders (e.g. business community) 1

Longitudinal Study—External Validity Grade 11 spring 2015 who enter college fall – Spring Spring 2017 – Matched ACT/SAT scores to benchmarks – Evaluate prediction of student success

Postsecondary Educators’ Judgment Study Fall 2014 (Recruitment begins Summer 2014) 300 faculty teaching entry-level math & ELA courses Cross-sector sample Evaluate whether an academically prepared student would get items correct on the first day of instruction

TAC Technical Advisory Committee – Purpose and charge: TAC advises PARCC as it develops a next-generation assessment system to ensure the assessments will provide reliable results to inform valid instructional and accountability decisions. The TAC provide guidance on assessment design and development, and the research agenda of the consortium. Jim Pellegrino (University of Illinois at Chicago) committee committee

Future Support from agencies will depend on resources Emerging information needs include – Scoring – Score reporting – Implementation roll-out – PARCC-generated research – SBAC – Your ideas?

How Can the Agencies Help?

Resources Common Core State Standards Model content frameworks Blueprints Sample items for every tested subject and grade Educator Leaders Cadres: Public ELC portal for educator resources! Test Administration Training Modules: PowerPoint and voice recordings to guide test administration parcc.pearson.com/tms Assessment Administration Capacity Planning tool 13.x Practice Test 33