A Walk In the PARCC Ohio Style

This past Friday I left the beach for a few hours to participate in my first Ohio PARCC Education Leader Cadre (ELC) meeting - via conference call.  Over the next 3 years, I will be working with a select group of educators from Ohio, and the other PARCC states to help make the transition to the Next Generation Assessments, the Common Core Curriculum and the New Ohio Enhanced Academic Standards a smooth one.

What is PARCC - Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers - 24 states
Focus is on ensuring that students who graduate from HS: 

• Have deep content knowledge
• Have well developed critical thinking, problem solving and analytical thinking skills
• Have developed the ability to persevere when working on a task, demonstrate resourcefulness,  understand the need for committing to a task and can set short and long term goals 
• Have the social and academic skills necessary to navigate through the work world or the world of higher education.

The role of the  ELCs includes:

• Communicating information to parents, community members, teachers and administrators
• Providing professional development and training locally and statewide
• Reviewing and providing feedback on the preK-12 and Higher Education alignment of content and college/career readiness standards along with assessments
• Providing feedback and suggestions for resources and technology integration 

The ELC is made up of  24 people

• Teachers
• Administrators
• Curriculum Directors
• Gifted and Talented specialists
• ELL instructors
• Special Educators
• Higher Ed staff
• Representatives from professional organizations like SECO, OCTM, OEA, OFT, OASSA,OCTELA, ORC
• ESC staff
• Parents - to be added
• Community Members - to be added

Key Information From My First Meeting:

• ODE has a P-16 Continuum - to make sure that Ohio's children start ready for k-12 education and end ready for a college or career path.  The focus beyond academic content is on developing social and cognitive skills to help students be successful.
• The national Common Core Standards in ELA and Math have been adopted in Ohio
• The ODE developed Enhanced Academic Content Standards (OEACS) in Science, Social Studies, Fine Arts, World Language, Financial Literacy, Entrepreneurship, Business Education.
• The goal of the OEACS is to provide guidance to educators for identifying points of access to the curriculum for all students in Ohio.
• Next Generation Assessments are being designed to give students multiple ways to show what they know
• PARCC is developing assessments for gr 3-8 and HS in ELA and Math for 2014-2015
• ODE is developing assessments for Science - one for elementary, one for MS and end of course exams in Biology and Physical Science for 2014-2015
• ODE is developing assessments for Social Studies - one for elementary, one for MS and end of course exams for American History and Govt. for 2014-2015
• ODE has developed Alternative Assessments for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities beginning in 2013.  Designed to be adaptive, on demand and performance based, student RESULTS will be submitted on line.  Training will be provided beginning this fall using online modules.
• ODE is working on making sure that by 2014-2015 the assessment items will be aligned to both the current and the new standards.
• There will be a transition plan in place to help students who are going to be "in the middle" of the current OAA and OGT assessment plan and the new Next Generation Assessments.
• New standards for ELP/ELL instruction are being developed.
• Early Learning Support and assessment updates, including KRAL are currently being done for birth to age 3.
• ODE is adding Differentiated Instruction Staff

PARCC Assessment Design Map
Things to note :

• The OGT is being replaced by  End of Year Exams in ELA grades 9, 10 and 11 AND 3 End of Course Exams (for traditional or integrated math models) AND End of Course Exams in Biology, Physical Science, American History and Govt.
• The Diagonistic and Mid Year Assessment are optional - and formative
• The Performance Based Assessment and End of Year Assessments are REQUIRED - and summative

Follow my blog for ongoing updates, keep track of the Common Core in Ohio by looking at the info under my "Common Core Tab" at the top of this blog or follow me on TWITTER - edtechgirl - look for the hashtag #OHPARCC