Back in April, Rhode Island decided to dump PARCC. They partnered with Massachusetts to develop their new assessment to be administered in May that will be shorter than what students took last week.
WPRI Channel 12 previewed the new assessment:
When Rhode Island public school students begin taking their standardized test in May, they’ll be staring at an exam that looks similar to the one they’ve been taking for the last three years.
But the new Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System (RICAS) will be about 85 minutes shorter per grade than the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test, according to Mary Ann Snider, the deputy commissioner for teaching and learning at the R.I. Department of Education.
With more than half of the 24 states that initially planned to use the PARCC backing away from it in recent years, Snider said Rhode Island thought it would be wise to partner with Massachusetts, which first developed the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) in 1993.
The MCAS has evolved over the years and will now include elements of the PARCC exam, but Snider said Massachusetts has a “proven assessment system.” She noted that Rhode Island has long partnered with other states on standardized exams, including the the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) and the PARCC.
I’m not certain if, like Massachusetts, Rhode Island’s assessment will be a MCAS-PARCC hybrid. I’m doubtful as the state withdrew from PARCC as a member, but, again, I’m not certain. PARCC’s membership has dwindled to Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New Mexico.
I will emphasize that their assessment is still Common Core-aligned.
PARCC and SBAC are ALWAYS lurking behind the scenes no matter what testing company is used. TN has hired 2 companies since we ended our relationship with PARCC and the current vendor works with SBAC. So no matter who is creating the tests (unless a RI teacher creates and marks the test) PARCC and SBAC will always be associated in some way. MA is still using Common Core and assessments will have to be aligned with CC so why is using the MA test any better? They really have their head in the clouds or they think we do.
Common Bore/CCRAP is alive and well in MD. The state BoEd is not happy with the CCRAP results from last year as they showed NO noticeable improvements, yet they are happy to double down and keep using it (and Common Bore) because they keep believing that they need to just “give it a chance” to work. Meanwhile, Finn and Smarick (Petrilli fits in there, too) get to direct this dog and pony show. When will this ever end?