Common Core and PARCC: Moving Beyond the Rhetoric

This Understanding Boston forum held on January 14, 2015 focused on the Common Core academic standards and The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College Careers (PARCC).

In Spring 2015, more than 50 percent of school districts in Massachusetts will administer the PARCC tests to students in grades 3-8. After the pilot phase, Massachusetts may adopt these new assessments as a replacement for the MCAS exams, and a new way of testing whether student are learning the Common Core standards. At this forum, the participants discussed the new standards, considered what the new assessments might be and what they mean for schools in Massachusetts.  The forum program included:

Welcome
Paul S. Grogan, President & CEO, The Boston Foundation
 
Presentation on the Common Core
Michael Cohen, President, Achieve
 
Panelists
Paul Dakin, Superintendent, Revere Public Schools
Katie Novak, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Human Resources, Groton-Dunstable Regional School District
Paul Toner, President, New Voice Strategies-VIVA
Jason Williams, Massachusetts Executive Director, Stand for Children
 
Closing Remarks
Mitchell Chester, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Richard Freeland, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education

Download Michael Cohen's presentation on the Common Core.