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Education Desk
The Education Desk is our education blog focusing on key areas of news coverage important to the state and its improvement. Evidence of public policy performance and impact will be reported and analyzed. We encourage you to engage in commenting and discussing the coverage of education from pre-natal to Higher Ed.Dusty Rhodes curates this blog that will provide follow-up to full-length stories, links to other reports of interest, statistics, and conversations with you about the issues and stories.About - Additional Education Coverage00000179-2419-d250-a579-e41d385d0000

Illinois Plans To Part With PARCC

animation of clock ticking quickly with student at laptop
Milo Skalicky
/
for NPR Illinois

The controversial standardized tests known as PARCC could be on their way out after this spring. The Illinois State Board of Education plans to request sealed proposals for a new statewide exam next week. That’s in response to concerns from teachers and parents about the hours-long reading and math assessment that most third- and eighth-graders failed.

 

PARCC is short for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. But having a long, clumsy name is just one of the problems with the test given to third- and eighth-graders. Teachers and parents complained that it took many hours, and by the time results came back, the kids had already moved on to the next grade. And last year, fewer than 40 percent of students who took it met expectations.

However, just because the state has decided to commission a different assessment tool doesn’t mean we’re going back to old-school bubble tests. Tony Smith, state superintendent of schools, says Illinois is in the market for an assessment tool that keeps the best parts of PARCC.

“It’s a post-Google world. I mean, questions about rote memorization and information recall are a thing of the past," he says. “PARCC is the highest-rated assessment, in terms of extended thinking, synthesizing information, removing bias from the questions — those are things that we are deeply committed to and remain committed to.”

The board will consider authorizing a request for sealed proposals when it meets next week. The request would set a cap of $36 million per year, or $216 million over six years, for the new test.

 

After a long career in newspapers (Dallas Observer, The Dallas Morning News, Anchorage Daily News, Illinois Times), Dusty returned to school to get a master's degree in multimedia journalism. She began work as Education Desk reporter at NPR Illinois in September 2014.
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