PARCC Releases Final Grade- and Subject-Specific PLDs Wednesday, July 17, 2013 9:31 PM Mark as Unread

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PARCC Releases Final Grade- and Subject-Specific PLDs

WASHINGTON, D.C. - July 17, 2013 - The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) today released the final grade- and subject-specific performance level descriptors (PLDs) in English language arts/literacy (ELA) and

mathematics. Performance levels, sometimes referred to as "achievement levels," are the broad categories used to report student performance on an assessment, and the PLDs

further describe what that performance means.

At the June 26, 2013 joint meeting, the PARCC Governing Board and their higher education counterparts on the Advisory Committee on College Readiness (ACCR) unanimously

adopted and approved the final PLDs for release. The vote followed an extensive public review and feedback period that spanned the months of April and May and garnered

hundreds of individual and group responses from across PARCC states.

Many people, including state K-12 and higher education representatives, content experts and classroom educators, used the feedback to revise and clarify the PLDs to make them

more accessible for educators as well as provide linkages to the PARCC assessment blueprints released at the end of April.

"The initial phase of writing the PLDs involved a lot of professional conversation in our diverse group of educators as we unpacked the standards and the evidence statements,

and organized them by big mathematical ideas," Joanie Funderburk, Secondary Math Coordinator for Cherry Creek Schools in Colorado, commented. "Our collective classroom

experiences were the key to describing, in the PLDs, how students progress in their learning of these math ideas. The PLDs became better with each group that looked at

them, and by the time we made the final edits based on public feedback, we had documents that will help teachers in planning, in formatively assessing student learning,

and in moving students forward on their mathematical learning continuum."

The grade- and subject-specific PLDs build upon policy-level PLDs adopted in October 2012 and together describe the educational implications for students who attain a particular

performance level on the PARCC assessments. While the policy-level PLDs provide high-level information about student performance, the newly adopted grade- and

subject-specific PLDs give more information to educators about expectations at each level on the assessment with the goal of helping all students achieve high levels of performance.

PARCC's Educator Leader Cadre (ELC) members, spanning K-12 through higher education, will engage in virtual professional development throughout the summer around

how to use the PLDs to prepare for the assessments in 2014-15 and ongoing Common

Core State Standards (CCSS) implementation. All materials used in these educator-created professional development videos and resources will be released to the field via the PARCC

ELC Portal at the end of September.

Judy Jenkins, Director of Curriculum at the Maryland State Department of Education and the state's ELC Lead, reflected on the utility of the PLDs. "The PLDs for each grade and

course explain what is measured in the PARCC assessments, and how student performance will be categorized. Along with the accompanying materials and resources,

they provide a means for educators to better understand the standards themselves."

The PLDs lay the foundation for continued opportunity for both K-12 and higher education to come together to create an assessment that will serve the needs of educators in both sectors and show whether or not students are on track to be college and career ready. They will be used as a baseline for longer term policy decisions, such as establishing

common performance levels across the PARCC states.

For more information, FAQs or to view the PLDs, visit http://www.parcconline.org/plds.

Media Contact: Chad Colby (202) 419-1570, ccolby@achieve.org

Connect with PARCC

PARCC is an alliance of states working together to develop common assessments serving over 20 million students. PARCC's work is funded through a four-year, $185 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Partners include over 200 higher education institutions and systems representing hundreds of campuses across the country that will help develop the high school component of the new assessment - and then put it to good

use as an indicator of student readiness. PARCC is led by its member states and managed by Achieve, a non-profit group with a 17-year track record of working with states to improve student achievement by aligning K-12 education policies with the expectations of employers

and the postsecondary community. PARCC's ultimate goal is to make sure all students graduate from high school college- and career-ready. For more information, visit

www.parcconline.org.