In just a few weeks, students in 12 states across the country - including Illinois - will be taking a new test.
It's called PARCC, which stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. In Illinois, the new test aligns with the state's new learning standards, known to some as the Common Core. The states that are part of PARCC include Arkansas, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island.
In the Rock Island-Milan School District, students and educators are getting ready to start testing on February 17th. PARCC replaces the ISAT and includes 5 Exams - 2 in Math and 3 in Language Arts. Students will take the tests once a year from 3rd Grade through 8th Grade, as well as one year in High School.
"Never in my experience in education have we ever had this much change occurring at one time," said Kathy Ruggeberg, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning. "It is massive change for educators. It's an unbelievable amount of stress on educators and they're taking it in stride. They are doing the best they can because they believe in our students and they want what's best for our students."
Ruggeberg says there have been some misconceptions about the state's new learning standards, but leaders in the Rock Island-Milan School District think they are working.
"If we didn't believe in these standards, we would not be adopting them," she explained. "We aren't being told what to teach. We're given standards just as we had standards before. Every school district gets to decide how they implement those standards."
"We are becoming better," she continued. "We have some phenomenal discussions occurring with teachers right now as they are unpacking those standards."
John Frieden, Principal of Denkmann Elementary School, said teachers are still learning the new standards and that creates some challenges.
"They didn't come in the simplest form and so we have to figure out exactly what they're saying, because they are quite complicated and so we're still learning exactly what are the best teaching practices we should be using with our students.""The district has provided us great training," he continued. "There's been a lot of sessions that we've had."The Rock Island-Milan School District also tests its students at the beginning, middle, and end of the year to measure student growth. Frieden said they will continue to take those tests on top of the PARCC exam, because it does measure the new state standards as well.
However, Ruggeberg said she understands that tests aren't the only way to measure growth and students achievement.
"We tell our students, our families, and our teachers that one test at one point in time is absolutely no measure of your success right now," she said.
"We know we have growth to make, but we can do it together one day at a time with our students."
To learn more about PARCC or to take a practice test, click here.
If you are in the Rock Island-Milan School District, click here.