Contact: Melissa Salmanowitz (DCPS) | (202) 535-1096
As of Wednesday, March 11, thousands of students from 67 District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) across all grade bands and all wards took the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests, a computer-based assessment with innovative and technology-enhanced items aligned to the rigorous Common Core State Standards. The remaining DCPS schools are scheduled to begin testing in the coming days. DCPS is one of only several urban districts administering the PARCC test fully online, according to PARCC.
Schools were able to administer the new online test to their students successfully and experienced only minor, isolated incidents related both to technology and human error. DCPS was prepared for first week issues, given the depth and breadth of the new exam, and issues that arose this week were expected. DCPS and city agency partner teams were on-site at schools and were also deployed to remedy these minor issues quickly. Over the first two days of testing, only four schools experienced a delay in testing days.
“The transition to this new test, especially one of this scale, was a big lift but it was absolutely necessary for students and our educators,” said DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson. “It took months of preparation, training and support – and we said early on that ‘perfect’ on this first week would include some minor glitches that we were ready to handle and address. These first two days went as expected, we’ve learned some important lessons and I’m very proud of our schools for handling this transition with patience and ease.”
PARCC tests assess Common Core State Standards in reading and math to students in third to eighth grades, as well as high school students in Algebra, Geometry, and English I and II. To prepare for the new exam, DCPS invested over $3 million to make significant technology upgrades. The majority of the investments were spent on upgrading and purchasing new technology, as well as retrofitting facilities to increase bandwidth and other needs. DCPS also provided regular trainings to school staff.
DCPS has held students to these internationally benchmarked standards since the 2010-2011 school year. This new assessment is the first specifically aligned to measure what is taught with the new standards.