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For the first time in more than 30 years, school districts will be able to see the actual test items used on New Jersey’s standardized tests, as well as samples of student work and scoring. It’s about time.

Why This Release is a ‘Big Deal’

Until now, teachers have taught to a standardized test that they never saw and never would see. But the PARCC assessment is different than a multiple choice test. Rather than requiring memorization of facts, PARCC assesses mastery of concepts. Therefore, it’s helpful to understand how questions are presented and graded to know how to teach to this higher level, deeper thinking test. With the release of PARCC test items, the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) is offering a level of transparency that will allow educators to better understand learning objectives, and plan more authentic and relevant instruction. This knowledge can only improve our instruction and test results—not to mention the 21^st century skills ultimately mastered by our students.

What to Expect

Schools will see about 850 items, which according to the NJDOE is “roughly the equivalent of one full test per grade level in 3-8 and each subject level in high school.”  The items will be posted at PARCC’s Partnership Resource Center at https://prc.parcconline.org. There also will be a scoring rubric, and past submissions of student work that has been scored and annotated. PARCC also is offering a Test Builder tool, which will allow educators to use the sample items to build practice assessments. Initially, the items will be presented in PDF form. In early 2016, they also will be available online in their original format.

What Districts Can Do

This release provides important information for our teachers, students and parents. But districts that simply provide the link to the results could be missing the opportunity to provide the leadership and support that will make the difference. Here are some tactics you may consider:

• Meet with your principals to determine a consistent school-wide approach within your district to the use of PARCC test items.
• Plan an introductory district-wide in-service, where you review sample results as a group, so that teachers become familiar with how to access the information, and understand what it means. Them how they can share this information with students, as indicated in the PARCC information.
• Hold an information session for interested parents and community members.
• Encourage your principals to follow-up with grade level sessions to review results and discuss classroom-based interventions to address gaps.
• Ask them to require teachers to incorporate PARCC instruction in their lesson planning for English language arts and mathematics, and if applicable, require teachers to create a practice test using the Test Builder tool.
• Designate one of your principals or a member of the administration team to be the district PARCC representative who will be available for questions from teachers. That individual can keep tabs on the progress being made at various grade levels.   

Using this data appropriately will help give your district, and your students, the edge on the next PARCC assessment. Look for more support from NJASA in the near future on PARCC and other items affecting New Jersey schools.

Stay tuned to the New Jersey Association of School Administrators website at www.njasa.net, this blog and our Facebook page for continuing up-to-date information on these critical issues and our professional programs. Our goal is to help New Jersey students get the best possible education and keep administrative costs down. 

By Dr. Richard Bozza Ed. D., Executive Director, New Jersey Association of School Administrators

The PARCC scores are in. Now the real work begins. School districts throughout New Jersey are working to better understand the scores, while beginning dialogues with teachers and parents, in an effort to adjust instruction and prepare students for the next round of assessments. Here’s what you need to know.

A Quick Summary of Findings

Approximately 850,000 New Jersey students took the 2014-15 PARCC assessments, nearly all of them (99 percent) on computer platforms. That speaks well to how we’re integrating technology into New Jersey’s schools. Importantly, the PARCC assessment isn’t structured like previous standardized tests. Because it measures mastery of concepts rather than memorization of facts, the results are bound to reveal more—and they do.

Results showed that only about half of New Jersey’s students are meeting or exceeding expectations in English Language Arts/Literacy. Less than half of our students are meeting or exceeding expectations in mathematics. For the first time, we’re being provided a more accurate picture of readiness for college and careers. This is valuable data, which has previously been unavailable through multiple-choice standardized testing.

Districts will receive individual student reports in mid- to late November, and also will receive results of the Dynamic Learning Maps assessment administered to students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.

A Dialogue with Our Teachers: Data-Driven Instruction

As PARCC delivers enhanced information about how students are meeting the Core Curriculum Content Standards, we can develop individual student plans guiding them toward success. Here’s how Chief Education Officers can work with teachers:

• Provide training on how to interpret the scores so that they may be able to communicate to parents, and also as a guide for differentiated instruction to meet a child’s needs.
• Guide teachers in creating an instructional plan for the class, and for individual students, to address the deficits identified by the assessment.
• Provide professional development sessions on types of interventions (full class, small group or individual student) teachers can use.
•  Provide diagnostic tools with sample test questions to allow teachers to obtain a “snapshot” of progress prior to students taking the next assessment.
• Connect them with the variety of PARCC resources, including score report guides for teachers and parents, video presentations for teachers, Teaching Channel Videos, and more. 

More information may be found at http://www.parcconline.org/resources/educator-resources.

A Dialogue with Our Principals: A Closer Look at Curriculum

While teachers look at PARCC data on a class-by-class basis, school principals can examine the aggregate data to identify achievement gaps and determine whether the current curriculum is preparing students well for PARCC assessments. Work with your principals to:

• Make more informed curriculum decisions, and institute curriculum changes if needed.
• Plan for support of students in need, as well as for enrichment of students who excel.
• Identify whether educational resources are being allocated to the schools that need it most.

A Dialogue with Our Parents: Fostering Student Success

Teachers and principals aren’t the only ones who will be closely watching the PARCC scores. Parents will want to know their child’s progress, in preparation for higher education and careers. Here’s what you can prepare for communications with parents:

• DOE’s Parent Academy for Student Success (PASS) will provide materials to help school leaders frame conversations with parents.
• The New Jersey Education Leader Cadre will host training in November on communicating new score reports to parents.
• You can provide parents with an online resource, such as http://understandthescore.org.
• Present a parent program that explains the results, so that parents may use the information as a “springboard for discussion” with teachers about how their child is doing.

Changes to Expect in the Next PARCC

The DOE has already announced changes to the next PARCC assessment. There will be a 90-minute reduction in testing time. Students in all grades will participate in fewer tests overall. All testing will be done within a single 30-day period, and most schools will likely complete tests in one to two weeks.

Stay tuned to the New Jersey Association of School Administrators website at www.njasa.net, this blog and our Facebook page for continuing up-to-date information on these critical issues and our professional programs. Our goal is to help New Jersey students get the best possible education and keep administrative costs down. 

What’s on the horizon for New Jersey’s public schools this year? Here are the items to watch for the 2015-2016 school year that have the potential to impact your local budgets and students.

Number One: Governor Christie’s Presidential Run

Governor Christie is making some key political moves. Unfortunately, they may not be aligned with the needs of New Jersey’s students and teachers.

The governor has already declared that the Common Core is not working. He’s asked for a review by December, which will take everyone’s attention. But that’s not all.

If the Common Core is judged ineffective, what happens to PARCC testing? PARCC was the test created for the Common Core. But we’ve only had one cycle of PARCC testing, and even then many students opted out of taking it. We don’t even have the first scores, and won’t until October.

Yet those scores are supposed to be part of educator evaluations. We hope enough students took the test to justify the 10 percent that make up teacher evaluations both for the past year and next year.

A significant issue to watch is how the Department of Education and State Board of Education will respond to the refusal of students and their parents to participate in the PARCC assessments.

There’s plenty of controversy on the horizon, and lots of unanswered questions on the Common Core, PARCC and teacher effectiveness. We’re paying attention because a presidential run by our governor shouldn’t impact the quality of education in New Jersey.

Number Two: School Funding

Funding has been on ongoing issue for New Jersey’s schools. Here’s the latest wrinkle.

The recent New Jersey Supreme Court ruling indicated that the Governor didn’t need to keep his end of the bargain and fully fund educator pensions. Add to that the requirement that district employees have to contribute a greater percentage to their health benefits, year over year. It seems that New Jersey’s educators are working for less than ever before. This will significantly impact employee negotiations with local school boards as required levels of contributions comes to an end.

Then there’s the area of district funding. Most districts are opting to forego elections and stay within the 2 percent cap of school budgets knowing that the increase cannot be rejected. The pressures of cost increases for materials and services, salary demands, and increasing inflation will cause school leaders and policy makers to make hard choices about their priorities when developing district budgets. Add to that the financial demands for fixing roads and paying pension and health care costs for government employees and local school district leaders are left to wonder if there will be further reductions in state aid.

Number Three: State Takeovers

New Jersey’s three largest urban school districts have been under state control for years. Now Governor Christie is getting some “push back.” Newark, Paterson and Jersey City are making progress. With former Education Commissioner Chris Cerf coming into Newark as superintendent given the charge to develop a plan to return local control, the question is how will the local leaders in the state operated districts in Jersey City and Paterson respond in their efforts to restore local control? Newark’s elected advisory school board is in favor. But it’s another controversial story to be played out in the 2015-16 school year in all three cities.

New Jersey’s Chief Education Officers are working hard to confront these challenges and others—always with the goal of the best interest of our students. Stay tuned. Watch for developments on our Facebook page and read our blog on njasa.net.

Stay tuned to the New Jersey Association of School Administrators website at www.njasa.net, this blog and our Facebook page for continuing up-to-date information on these critical issues and our professional programs. Our goal is to help New Jersey students get the best possible education and keep administrative costs down.

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