Higher Education’s Role in Standards and Assessments

Each week, the Department of Higher Education issues a weekly digest of news clips that provides updates on what is going on at various campuses around the state.  This week, the digest (subscribe at the DHE website link above) also provided some interesting perspectives on  the Common Core and PARCC.    I thought these items were worth sharing here.  

K-12 TRENDS | A Bird’s-Eye View On Common Core Across The Country – NPR
07/23/2014 – (Audio) With conservative commentator Glenn Beck renewing his fight against the Common Core State Standards, it’s worth taking a bird’s-eye view of the learning benchmarks. Where are they now being implemented, what challenges remain and what does the coming school year have in store?
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K-12 TRENDS | Editorial: Put PARCC to the test – Wellesley Townsman
07/23/2014 – Massachusetts takes considerable pride in the success its public schools have had since the state put in place uniform standards and the MCAS testing regime in 1993. Bay State students have consistently led the nation in academic achievement – though not the world – in the years since. But good teachers don’t use the same lesson plans year after year, and good students don’t slack off because they made honor roll last semester. The MCAS system is over 20 years old, and it was far from perfect to begin with. Consider that the 10th grade MCAS tests, the original “high stakes” tests required for graduation, were designed to determine if the student was capable of doing 10th grade work – not whether he or she was prepared to succeed in college or the workplace.
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K-12 TRENDS | Higher education urged to play more of a role in Common Core – insidehighered
07/22/2014 – The Common Core State Standards Initiative is supposed to prepare K-12 students for higher education — but college and university faculty members and administrators remain largely removed from planning and rolling out these new assessments and standards. So argues a new paper from the New American Foundation, which urges colleges and universities to get involved in the Common Core to ensure the program ends up doing what it was supposed to do.
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K-12 TRENDS | PARCC for Higher Education – PBS Learning Media
June 2014 – (Video) The Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a consortium of states that have come together to create a high-quality assessment for measuring student progression toward college readiness. The implementation of the PARCC assessments in K-12 education systems has created opportunities for state colleges and universities to build meaningful partnerships with district high schools to promote and increase college access for all students who wish to pursue higher education.
>> Full Story  –   Also, check out the information on the “PARCC for Parents” page