New online math and English exams based on the Common Core State Standards are planned for implementation next year as part of a nationwide effort to improve student achievement in public schools. Supporters say that the new standards are more rigorous, and the corresponding exams will gauge higher order skills like critical-thinking, problem-solving, and communication. Sample exam questions are now available to the public online.
PARCC Exams
Maryland is a participant in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), one of two multi-state consortiums developing the online exams. PARCC plans to field test its exams with more than a million students this spring, including some here in Harford County.
Next year, PARCC exams will replace the Maryland State Assessment (MSA) for grades 3 – 8, according to the state education department. For older students, the new exams will replace the High School Assessment (HSA) in English and math only, beginning next year under a transition schedule approved last week by the State Board of Education.
In order to provide educators, students and parents with a preview of exam content and online administration, PARCC also recently published a series of online sample questions. (For schools without the necessary technology, PARCC is planning a paper and pencil option, however the new tests are designed to be taken online.)
Sample Questions
PARCC formatted its sample questions in a series of online “tests” available via the link below. There you will also find a link to the tutorial for navigating the online exam environment, similar to what students will experience when they take the actual exams next year.
Get started on the sample questions by clicking “Go directly to the test items in grades 3 – 5”. (Braver souls may also choose the links for grades 6 – 8 and for high school)
Please note that the actual exams will be given to students by grade level. However, PARCC grouped the online sample questions within grade ranges as noted above.
For grades 3 – 5, the samples total 17 questions: 11 in English Language Arts and 6 questions in math. You need not answer one question in order to advance to the next question.
Scoring
PARCC does not score its online sample questions. However, the correct answers and corresponding rationale, as published in various locations throughout the PARCC Web site, are linked below in an answer sheet for the grade 3 – 5 samples only. The answer sheet was compiled by The Dagger for ease of access. Because the online questions are not numbered, the answers are grouped by topic in the same order in which they appear online.
Click here to begin: https://www.parcconline.org/computer-based-samples
Good luck.
Answer Sheet for Sample Questions Grades 3 – 5
Part 1: English Language Arts
“The Cricket and The Cougar” and “Kira-Kira” – Grade 4 (Note, the first question on the exam and on the answer sheet are different from each other. However, both are vocabulary words taken from the same text)
http://parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/PARCC_SampleItems_ELA-Literacy_Grade4Items_082113_Final.pdf
“Life in the Limbs” – Grade 5
http://parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/PARCCSampleItems_ELA-Literacy_Grade5ItemsFinal.pdf
Part 2: Math
Vans for a Field Trip – Grade 3
http://parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/PARCC_SampleItems_Mathematics_G3Vansforfieldtrip_081513_Final.pdf
Patricia’s Reading Time – Grade 3
http://parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/Grade3-Patricia%27sReadingTime.pdf
Art Teacher’s Rectangular Array – Grade 3
http://parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/ArtTeacherRectangularArray_0.pdf
Subtraction Fluency – Grade 4
http://parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/PARCC_SampleItems_Mathematics_G4SubtractionFluency_081913_Final.pdf
Three Friends Beads – Grade 4
http://parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/Grade4-ThreeFriends%27Beads.pdf
Two Aquarium Tanks – Grade 5
http://parcconline.org/sites/parcc/files/Grade5-TwoAquariumTanks.pdf
What was so hard about that? The questions seem perfectly reasonable for children of that age and grade level.
I wonder how Harford County, which cries broke every year, will suddenly come up with the cost of the increased bandwidth necessary to give the tests and the more than doubled cost of the tests themselves…yet because Maryland took Race to the Top money I am required to suddenly be a data and evidence collector as part of the new evaluation system-all to prove my teaching but with no financial reward for achieving goals…. Preparing for new tests, insane amounts of new paperwork and archiving that has nothing to do with actual teaching with no raises in sight yet again for a county that hates it’s teachers in general. An administrator was asked how much money our school receives from Race to the Top-apparently by the time any of what’s left gets to actual schools it’s not even worth talking about. So where is it? Has anyone asked HCPS to show where it’s being used since it requires these new more expensive tests?
They don’t know how they will suddenly come up with the cost of increased bandwidth necessary to implement these tests, because they haven’t figured it out yet. They also haven’t even figured out exactly how they will even give the tests, how they will be scheduled, what the curriculum is going to be for 4th quarter, what’s going to happen with the kids who have to take HSA and PARCC, etc. The answers that the teachers keep getting is, “We don’t know just yet,” but they keep shoving it down our throats. Why? THE MONEY. They want that Race to the Top money, even if nothing is actually ready.
And before you start bitching at me because I said we were waiting for a curriculum (“You teachers just get handed materials! How hard can it be to teach an already-prepared lesson plan?!”) keep this in mind: We are getting evaluated based on how closely we stick to the curriculum. They are throwing the curriculum at us WEEKS before they want us to teach it. They don’t actually give us lesson plans, either– that would be cake. No, they are telling us what they want us to cover, but not how they want us to cover it. And that’s fine. I like being creative; I thrive on it. However, I am so sick of being told we are required to cover certain things, but they don’t know what those things are “just yet.” They should have figured EVERYTHING out before shoving it in our faces just to get money.
Kate,
I know folks hate it when I keep posting that the teachers, almost in lockstep, vote in the people at the state and federal level that jam this stuff down their throats. Then, the blame gets dumped on the local parents for not wanting to fund all the admin to implement it.
The entire thing is insanity.
Most of the Race to the Top money went to positions at central office. The model department chairs are one example. That money ends this year. We have spent it with nothing to show for it.
In addition, every time we ask our content supervisor when we will get a complete curriculum that meets common core standards we are told that it’s not in the budget.
I can only speak from my personal experience, but the model department chair I worked with has been everything the mentors were supposed to be. The model department chairs could actually offer suggestions to experienced teachers because they had taught the same subject. I am not putting mentors down–how can someone who taught English have any specific CONTENT suggestions for someone teaching PE? They can certainly offer basic management, teaching, and planning help, but as far as content specifics they are limited. I would much prefer they eliminate the mentor positions and replace them with content mentors.
As far as curriculum, I think most people do not understand that in both the math and language arts central offices, there are LITERALLY two people. How can two people be expected to write 180 lessons for 11 different grades in a single year? That is close to 2,000 lessons. If each lesson took 45 minutes to write (so that they were of some quality) that would be 90,000 minutes. Even working 10 hours a day without a break or working on any other responsibilities associated with the office, that would only give one person time to write 150 lessons. I think there is certainly waste in central office, but the content area offices are not where the waste is. The budget has been cut so much that the offices do not have money to pay teachers to write curriculum.
And, before anyone starts accusing, NO…I do not work in central office. I work IN a school as a CLASSROOM teacher. I just think there is a lot of misinformation and general grouping of “central office” without really understanding how small some departments really are.
Good point about the lesson plans… guess that would be a good question for a PA or NY school district where there is one supervisor for two or three contents and the curriculum is complete. Maybe we could learn something.
I also wasn’t putting down the model dept. chairs. Just stating that their salaries were paid by Race To the Top funds. Now that those funds have dried up, either central office needs to find the money to pay them or those positions are gone. (And I thought they were originally supposed to support department chairs in their work to become evaluative vs. simply following the old teacher specialist model. What happened to that?)
Can we do another one of these but it would be “Are you Smarter Than a Delegate” where we ask both 5th graders and Glen Glass the same question to see who can answer them. We’ll even throw in some Smart Meter questions just to help Glen out.
Let’s have him face Impalaria in the contest! That would be something to see.
Put Pat in there too! It could be like celebrity Jeopardy!