SELECTED GARDEN STATE SCHOOLS PUT TOUGH NEW PARCC EXAMS TO THE TEST
With first round of limited tryouts complete, online testing partnership announces New Jersey will be part of broader field tests.
- A sample question from the PARCC Test
Nicholas Diaz knew all about the debate around the online testing coming to New Jersey in two years, and the questions as to whether both the schools and the students would be ready.
And he admits he was a little nervous when the Somerville school he led last year signed up to try out the language arts part of the exams being developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC).
Diaz’s third- and fifth-graders at the Van Derveer School were among the guinea pigs.
“We were a little worried at first, this being the first time any of us had seen the test,” said Diaz, now a principal in Manville. “But they were pretty savvy -- they are a lot more tech savvy than we think they are.”
As for the rigor of the new test, Diaz said it is no doubt a different kind of exam, with students given familiar reading sections but then asked to do different things with them. For instance, one question asked for them to write an alternative