mass drive in_parcc_presentation_10.31.13

PARCCMASS Drive-in ConferenceOctober 31, 2013

Bob Bickerton, Senior Associate Commissioner

Maureen LaCroix, Special Assistant to Deputy Commissioner

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

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AGENDA

1. A brief history of MCAS and the high school graduation “Competency Determination”

2. An overview of PARCC3. A summary of our two-year transition plan

from MCAS to PARCCa) Impact on Accountability Systemb) Special Education accommodationsc) Board decision timelined) Considerations for Educator Evaluatione) Technology questions and needs

4. Questions and concerns


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Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS)State law specifies the adoption of a testing program that: tests all students who are educated with

Massachusetts public funds, including students with disabilities and limited English proficient students;

measures performance based on the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks; and

reports individual student, school, and district performance.


Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks

Curriculum Framework First Adopted Revised / Updated

Mathematics 1995 2000, 2004*, 2011

English Language Arts 1997 2001, 2004*, 2011

Science and Technology / Engineering

1995 2006

History / Social Science

1997 2003

Comprehensive Health 1995 1999

Arts 1995 1999

Foreign Language 1995 1999

Vocational Technical Education

2006 Pending

* Updates in 2004 to support NCLB requirement to test all grades from 3 through 8


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Transition to New, More Rigorous Standards

Common Core State Standards: 2011 MA Curriculum Frameworks for ELA/Literacy

and Mathematics incorporate the CCSS.

Public school districts, public charter schools, and educator preparation programs in colleges and universities are implementing the new standards• SY 2012: Introduction of 2010 standards• SY 2013: Near full implementation of 2010

standards• SY 2014: Full implementation of 2010 standards


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Key Shifts in the ELA/Literacy Standards

1. Equal emphasis on literary and informational texts

2. Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text

3. Writing in response to one or more texts4. Regular practice reading complex texts

and academic language


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Key Shifts in the Mathematics Standards

1. Each grade focuses on fewer standards:a) each standard addressed more deeplyb) coherent progression across grades

2. Conceptual understanding of topics is foundational

3. Students are expected to extend their knowledge to real-life modeling and application

Why PARCC?Why Now?

Origins of PARCC: The Massachusetts Vision

Next Generation Assessment:Massachusetts was one of three states (with

Louisiana and Florida) to conceptualize a next generation assessment system focused on the new college and career ready standards. Those early discussions and planning evolved into the state-driven PARCC initiative and partnering with other states.


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PARCC in Massachusetts

2010 Memorandum of Agreement(Signed by Governor Patrick, Secretary Reville

and Commissioner Chester)

Massachusetts signs memorandum of agreement (MOA) making a commitment to adopt PARCC assessments “…provided they are at least as comprehensive and rigorous as our current MCAS assessments, if not more so.”

PARCC Partnership

In Massachusetts, PARCC has provided a vehicle for creating a new, extraordinary partnership with higher education. That partnership includes:1. Higher education faculty involved in the

development of PARCC.2. A commitment from higher education that the PARCC

“college and career ready” standard wil qualify students for placement into credit-bearing coursework.


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Why Do We Need A New Assessment?Common Core State Standards:

MA 2010 ELA & Math Standards incorporate the Common Core. 1. The new standards include significant

changes and shifts from the prior standards.

2. MA must implement an assessment aligned to the new standards

3. MCAS would require significant changes to be fully aligned with the MA 2010 Standards


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Why Now?When our state accepted RttT and

additional stimulus funding, we committed to administer an assessment aligned to the CCSS by 2014-2015.

Why Are We Field Testing in the spring 2014?1. When we signed onto PARCC, we agreed to

a 4-year development plan.***This is the fourth year – all states in the

consortium are field-testing items.

2. We should not adopt a test built without Massachusetts student data.


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Why PARCC?The PARCC consortium received

$186M to design a new assessment system***Significant quality and cost benefits.1. Massachusetts has played and continues to

play key leadership and “hands on” roles in the design and development of the PARCC assessments

2. All indications to date are that PARCC will provide a better assessment system than MCAS


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Why PARCC? Focus on Standards

The PARCC summative assessments: 1. Focus on grade-level or course-specific

standards leading to college & career readiness.

2. Include performance-based assessments (PBAs) that provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their mastery of skills and abilities where current assessments fall short.a) ELA: literary analysis, narrative writing,

research simulations.b) Math: real-life modeling and applications.

PARCC Field TestSpring 2014


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Spring 2014 PARCC Field Test

Approximately 15% of MA students in grades 3-11• randomly selected, by grade and classroom • students will take portions of ELA/Lit –OR– Math

Computer-based or paper-and-pencil Testing windows:

• March 24-April 11 Performance-based assessment (PBA) in ELA & Math.

• May 5-June 6 End-of-year assessment (EOY) in ELA & Math.

Grade 10 students will be selected for end-of-year (EOY) only.

Special Education and the Spring 2014 Field Test

What if the field test doesn’t provide the full suite of access tools? You may exempt students whose

accommodation is not yet available.


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Considerations for Accountability

Making a Recommendation to the Commissioner

Accountability in 2013/14

By far your most articulated concern:

Tens of thousands of students will take a PARCC field test and opt out of MCAS in that subject area. This leaves ESE and districts with less MCAS data with which to make all sorts of decisions.

As a result, what policy shifts, particularly related to accountability, will ESE have to make?


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Accountability options

The options we will present today are not exhaustive: Do you like a particular option over the

others? Would you tweak an option? Do you have new ideas entirely?

There are pros and cons to every option Options only apply to those schools that

participate in the field test Your input will inform the Commissioner’s

decisions

Goal: find a happy medium

The extremes are off the table.

Extreme #1: Despite the missing data, ESE makes accountability determinations as usual. May not provide an accurate reflection of your schools

performance Wouldn’t be fair to you.

Extreme #2: Shut down the accountability system. ESE has responsibility to make determinations on behalf

of students. Limited number of classes, grades and students will be

field tested; we will have data for the vast majority of students

State and federal laws won’t allow it.Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

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Option 1: Grade Level Exception


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School is given the highest score (CPI, Percent Proficient, SGP) of:

Calculations including the field-tested grade(s)

Calculations excluding the field-tested grade(s)

Option 1: Grade Level Exception


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Pro ConKeeps accountability system going as per state and federal law

Scores may not be entirely accurate

If we exclude an atypically high performing grade, the school is harmed by having participated in the field test

Won’t work for schools with only 1 tested grade (e.g., a K-3 school)

Option 2: Use if Representative


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We determine whether the achievement of students who are opted out of MCAS is representative of the overall achievement in that school:1. If student sample is skewed (high

proportion of higher or lower achieving students), then school’s scores and level cannot move down (“held harmless.”)

2. If student sample was representative, then accountability determinations are made as usual.

Option 2: Use if Representative


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Pro ConKeeps accountability system going as per state and federal law

Requires additional data collection and is based on a judgment made by the Department

How would we determine whether the sample is representative?

We would first find out who was selected for the PARCC field test and opting out of MCAS, and compare their “predicted” 2013-14 scores to the non-selected student “predicted” 2013-14 scores. If the school is projected to be negatively impacted, they would receive a hold harmless accountability determination. It is important to note that this would be within-school comparison and not like SGPs which are statewide comparison groups.


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PARCC Transition PlanTimelines and Considerations

Transition Plan TimelineNovember 2013: Recommendation to Board of Education to approve PARCC Transition Plan which includes the following:

District Choice: Massachusetts led the way to enable districts to choose whether to administer MCAS or PARCC in 2014/15. MCAS only for Grade 10 in 2014/15 and 2015/16 MCAS for Competency Determination through Class

of 2018 Budget will determine extent to which we can make

PARCC end-of-course assessments available for grades 9 and 11

PARCC Test: for grades 3-8 in 2015/16


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Spring 2015 Administration

1. Dual administration of PARCC and MCAS, but no double-testing of students

2. Districts/schools choose PARCC or MCAS3. PARCC will offer computer-based and

paper-and-pencil tests4. For accountability, ESE is

recommending a “hold harmless” policy for districts/schools that choose PARCC

The PARCC Decision

1. Rigor: We will use the results of the field test to evaluate the rigor of PARCC items in Fall 2014

2. Quality: We are conducting comprehensive, independent reviews to evaluate PARCC’s readiness to deliver a quality assessment

3. Opportunity: We will evaluate the ability of PARCC to assess standards and measure skills and abilities we cannot assess with MCAS.


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Recommendation to the Board

Before the final Board Decision, we will analyze:: 1. Results of 2014/15 test administration and

the 2. Summer 2015 Standard Setting to inform

the Board’s decision on whether or not to adopt PARCC in the Fall 2015.


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Transition to PARCC: Competency Determination

At least through Class of 2018: Grade 10 students will take MCAS tests/retests in ELA, Mathematics, and Science and Tech/Engineering In spring 2015 and spring 2016, grade 10 students

will take MCAS (not PARCC) for CDMCAS retests continue through at least spring 2018

Science and Tech/Engineering tests will continue during PARCC implementation

This fall: ESE will provide updates for classes of 2019 and beyond

Implications for Educator Evaluation SystemStudent Impact Rating

Educator Evaluation: Student Impact Rating Requirement: By the 2014/15 school

year, educators must be matched with at least two measures, drawing from the following sources: Statewide growth measures (median

SGPs), must be used where available, and

District-Determined Measures (DDMs)

District Expectations: ESE will compute SGPs for educators who teach ELA and Math in grades 4-8


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Impact of PARCC on Educator Evaluation

2013-14 PARCC Field Test and 2014/15 MCAS or PARCC Option Year: Issue: Educators whose students field test

the PARCC performance based assessment in 2013/14 may be exempted from MCAS; these students will not have SGPs in 2013/14 or 2014-15

Issue: The Department will need to provide growth scores for students whose new assessment score is based upon PARCC after one or more prior years of scores based upon MCAS


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Impact on Ed Eval (continued)

Why this Matters: 2013/14: some districts intend to begin

impact ratings this SY and may not have MCAS SGPs available for some classes of students

2014-15 is Year 1 of Student Impact Rating data collection.

Districts may have to identify an additional DDM for these educators, BUT will be required to use SGPs in future years.


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Impact on Ed Eval (continued)

Potential Solutions: Districts may consider dispersing students

who participate in the 2013/14 PARCC field test as they assign students to classes in 2014/15 to ensure there are enough students with SGPs in each class to support computing a median SGP

The Department is working with national experts who are confident that we can provide a reliable growth score when students switch from MCAS to PARCC.


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We need your feedback on these Educator Evaluation options

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Communications Parent Letter: The Department will provide

a sample letter for parents regarding non-participation in MCAS (and therefore no scores in a subject.)

Working with MASC: The Department is working with MASC to provide resources for use with school committee members.

Regional Presentations: The Department is scheduling meetings with all associations and will make multiple targeted and open regional presentations over the coming months.

Technology Questions1. Will districts be able to access the test

across multiple technology platforms?• PARCC has adopted minimum requirements that are

close to being “device agnostic”

2. How long will there be a paper/pencil option?• At least through 2015-2016 and possibly beyond

3. What if we don’t have the technology or bandwidth?a) FCC is committed to expanded eRate options and

funding b) The Department is working with the Administration and

the Treasurer’s Office to help districts meet the matching requirement

SPED Accommodations

What are the universal accommodations embedded in PARCC?1. Massachusetts’ portfolio of accommodations

has largely been adopted by PARCC2. APIP (a new way of attaching the

accommodation directly to each item)3. Accommodations automatically activate as

appropriate depending on the student’s disability and instructional/testing requirements


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Quick Reminders Level 4 Schools may choose to opt out

of PARCC Field Test:1. No justification required.2. May exercise MCAS opt out; many

implications (+/-) to consider.

Grade 10 Students through the Class of 2018 will do MCAS (for competency determination.)

MCAS Science testing continues (including for the Science competency determination.)Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

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PARCC Timeline in MA

SYs 2011-12, 2012-13

Phase I Design & Development

Content frameworks & test

specifications

SY 2012-13

Phase II Development

• State-led item reviews

• Item tryouts and analysis

SY 2013-14

BESE Votes on Transition Plan

Field Testing

Spring Administration

SY 2014-15

MCAS + Initial administration

of PARCC assessments

SY 2015-16

PARCC[except

grade 10]

2015

Summer: Set 5 achievement

& CCR performance

levelsFall: BESE Vote on adoption

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For more information regarding PARCC and the 2014 Field Test, please visit the PARCC website at http://www.parcconline.org/field-test.

If you have questions regarding the PARCC Field Test, please contact Pearson’s PARCC Support Center: 1-888-493-9888 (open Monday through Friday, 6:00am to 8:00pm CST) or [email protected].

If you have questions regarding state policies, please contact Student Assessment Services at [email protected].

For More Information

Additional guidance is available at www.parcconline.org/field-test

http://www.parcconline.org/field-test

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Let's talk!

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