Understanding PARCC and Disciplinary Literacy

November 2012

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Assessment DesignEnglish Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics, Grades 3-11

End-of-Year Assessment

• Innovative, computer-based items• Required

Performance-BasedAssessment (PBA)• Extended tasks• Applications of

concepts and skills• Required

Diagnostic Assessment• Early indicator of

student knowledge and skills to inform instruction, supports, and PD• Non-summative

2 Optional Assessments/Flexible Administration

Mid-Year Assessment• Performance-based• Emphasis on hard-

to-measure standards• Potentially

summative

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Speaking And Listening Assessment• Locally scored• Non-summative, required

Claims Driving Design: ELA/Literacy

Students are on-track or ready for college and careers

Students read and comprehend a range of sufficiently complex texts

independently

Reading LiteratureRL.X.1-10

Reading Informational

TextRI.X.1-10 and

Reading Literacy

Standards

Vocabulary Interpretation

and UseRL/RI.X.4 and

L.X. 4-6

Students write effectively when using

and/or analyzing sources.

Written Expression

W.X.1-10 and Disciplinary

Writing Standards

Conventions and

Knowledge of Language

L.X.1.-3

Students build and present

knowledge through

research and the

integration, comparison,

and synthesis of ideas.

ELA/Literacy Performance-Based Assessment

Research Simulation Task

• A research question is posed, with students told they will gather information to answer this research question

• Students read a non-fiction text , answer questions to help gather information from the text to solve the research problem and write a summary of that text.

• Students read one or more additional nonfiction texts, answer questions to help gather additional information to solve the research problem posed, and then write an analytical essay to present their solution to the research question posed.

Literary Analysis Task

• Students read two literary texts, answer questions that demonstrate the ability to do both close analytic reading and comparison and synthesis of ideas. Students write a literary analysis of both texts.

Narrative Writing Task

• Students read one or two brief texts and answer a few questions to help clarify understandings of the text(s).

• Students write either a narrative story or a narrative description. (Critical element for the writing prompt is that it elicits student demonstration of ability to write sequences well).

PARCC is designed to reward quality instruction aligned to the Standards, so the assessment is worthy of preparation rather than a distraction from good work.

PARCC’s Fundamental Advance

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• In grades 3-5, the CCSS includes standards that call for students to read and write informational texts from across the disciplines.

• In grades 6-12, the CCSS includes Literacy standards fro reading and writing of both History/Social Studies and Science/Technical texts

Disciplinary Literacy and the CCSS

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• Texts Worth Reading: The assessments will use authentic texts worthy of study instead of artificially produced or commissioned passages. This includes primary and secondary source documents.

• Questions Worth Answering: Sequences of questions that draw students into deeper encounters with texts will be the norm (as in an excellent classroom), rather than sets of random questions of varying quality.

• Better Standards Demand Better Questions: Instead of reusing existing items, PARCC will develop custom items to the Standards.

• Fidelity to the Standards (now in Teachers’ hands): PARCC evidences are rooted in the language of the Standards so that expectations remain the same in both instructional and assessment settings.

PARCC’s Core Commitments to ELA/Literacy Assessment Quality

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1. Complexity: Regular practice with complex text and its academic language. When teaching Social Studies, using appropriate primary and secondary source documents and having students carefully read these documents helps build effective student literacies.

2. Evidence: Reading and writing grounded in evidence from text, literary and informational. As Social Studies teachers, asking students to use facts, data, and text-based evidence to substantiate arguments and to explain ideas will support needed literacies.

3. Knowledge: Building knowledge through content rich nonfiction. Using texts, rather than “summaries” of texts can help build student literacies.

What Are the Shifts at the Heart of PARCC Design (and the Standards)?

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1. PARCC builds a staircase of text complexity to ensure students are on track each year for college and career reading.

2. PARCC rewards careful, close reading rather than racing through passages. While there is much content in the SS curriculum, where possible, allowing students to closely read important documents will help students gain needed literacies.

3. PARCC systematically focuses on the words that matter most—not obscure vocabulary, but the academic language that pervades complex texts. Tier 2 words are those academic words that cut across content (but where meanings may change). For example, helping students to understand what it means to analyze, evaluate, critique in Social Studies will be very important.

Shift 1: Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

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4. PARCC focuses on students rigorously citing evidence from texts throughout the assessment (including selected-response items).

5. PARCC includes questions with more than one right answer to allow students to generate a range of rich insights that are substantiated by evidence from text(s).

6. PARCC requires writing to sources rather than writing to de-contextualized expository prompts. Consider how maps, charts, tables, primary/secondary sources are used to develop ideas in writing in Social Studies.

7. PARCC also includes rigorous expectations for narrative writing, including accuracy and precision in writing in later grades.

Shift 2: Reading and writing grounded in evidence from text, literary and informational

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8. PARCC assesses not just ELA but a full range of reading and writing across the disciplines of science and social studies.

9. PARCC simulates research on the assessment, including the comparison and synthesis of ideas across a range of informational sources.

Shift 3: Building knowledge through content rich nonfiction

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Questions? Comments?

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