High School Assessments

The high school PARCC assessments will be based directly on the Common Core State Standards
 

The distributed PARCC design includes four components - two required summative and two optional non-summative - to provide educators with timely feedback to inform instruction and provide multiple measures of student achievement across the school year. PARCC states have endorsed a grade-based design in English language arts/literacy (ELA/literacy) and both a course-based and integrated design in mathematics.

Summative Assessment Components:

• Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) administered after approximately 75% of the school year. The ELA/literacy PBA will focus on writing effectively when analyzing text. The mathematics PBA will focus on expressing mathematical reasoning and modeling real-world problems.
• End-of-Year Assessment (EOY) administered after approximately 90% of the school year. The ELA/literacy EOY will focus on reading comprehension. The mathematics EOY will call on students to demonstrate further conceptual understanding of the Major Content and Additional and Supporting Content of the grade/course (as outlined in the PARCC Model Content Frameworks).

Non-Summative Assessment Components:

• Diagnostic Assessment designed to be an indicator of student knowledge and skills so that instruction, supports, and professional development can be tailored to meet student needs. 
• Mid-Year Assessment (MYA) comprised of performance-based items and tasks, with an emphasis on hard-to-measure standards. After study, individual states may consider including the MYA as a summative component.
• Speaking and Listening Assessment (ELA/literacy only) designed to be an indicator of students' ability to communicate their own ideas, listen to and comprehend the ideas of others, and to integrate and evaluate information from multimedia sources.

The high school assessments will include a range of item types, including innovative constructed response, extended performance tasks, and selected response (all of which will be computer based). In addition, there will be college-ready cut scores on high school tests in mathematics and ELA/Literacy, which will signify whether students are ready for entry-level, credit-bearing college coursework. Earlier tests will be aligned vertically to ensure students are on - and stay on - the track to graduating ready for college and careers.