PARCC, the 11-state Common Core testing partnership, will slightly shorten its tests next year and have just one testing period, not two.
PARCC announced that member states voted to approve the change Wednesday.
PARCC’s press release said that it will cut testing time by 60 minutes in math and 30 minutes in English.
That change won’t bring a dramatic reduction. Students took about 10 to 11 hours of PARCC exams this year, depending on their grade, so the 90-minute drop means a 15 percent cut at the most.
Instead of having students take one round of several days of tests in February and March, then another round of several days in April and May, PARCC will now have students take a single round – also over several days – about 90 percent of the way through the year.
Students will take tests in six or seven separate testing periods instead of the eight or nine they are spread over now.
It’s unclear if that will satisfy critics in Ohio. The Ohio House recently voted to cut testing time even more dramatically and to ban PARCC from giving state tests here anymore.
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