PARCC, Inc.

PARCC supports schools and districts to meet the growing demand for flexibility in the development of high-quality summative assessments, including managing the content produced by the PARCC consortium. CenterPoint, a fiscally sponsored project of PARCC will provide diagnostic and interim assessments from PARCC, instructional tools, and professional learning services for teachers. Scalable measures that support robust academic knowledge, higher-order thinking skills, and academic mindsets will help ensure that at least 15 percent of U.S. students are being assessed on deeper learning-aligned outcomes.

Through the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), states came together in early 2010 to develop new student tests that measure career- and college-learning standards and help prepare students for success in college and the workforce. This state collaborative effort will result in an innovative, affordable assessment of college- and career-readiness and deeper learning outcomes. Hewlett Foundation support would increase PARCC’s long-term sustainability by increasing the number of participating states and the number of students served.

As one of the few organizations creating the next generation of standards-aligned assessments for K-12 education, Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers is uniquely situated to support educators in shifting professional practices around assessments that measure deeper learning. This proposal seeks support to establish a Next Generation Assessment Literacy Center (NGALC). The NGALC will engage practitioners with Open Educational Resources, online tools, and community collaborations focused on enhancing teachers’ professional practices around assessment, as well as strengthening connections between assessment data and classroom instruction to promote deeper student learning.