Montgomery County Public Schools students will spend less time taking state tests in the next school year.
On Thursday, the Maryland State Department of Education announced changes to its Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests for students in grades three to eight and high school.
The tests were rolled out for the first time during the 2014-2015 school year as a replacement for the Maryland School Assessments. Two separate PARCC testing blocks this spring led to complaints about the amount of time being dedicated to the tests.
The multi-state consortium governing the tests voted Wednesday to combine the English language arts and math testing windows into one 30-day window near the end of the semester or school year.
Students will now take six or seven test units instead of eight or nine, depending on the grade level.
The time allotted to take the tests will be cut by about 90 minutes, again depending on the content and grade level.
“After the first administration of the tests this spring, parents in Montgomery County, the state of Maryland, and across the nation expressed concerns about the amount of time the tests took and the fact they were administered during two separate testing ‘windows’ that were only a few weeks apart,” wrote Montgomery County Board of Education President Patricia O’Neill in a blog post.
O’Neill lauded the PARCC consortium and the state, which is part of the consortium, for the decision to cut down on testing times for the 2015-2016 school year.
But O’Neill said she and her board colleagues still have concerns about the amount of tests students take.
In March, O’Neill asked Interim Superintendent Larry Bowers about exempting some students from county final exams in subjects where they also took a state PARCC test.
“Does it make sense for us to give a countywide final exam in the same high school subject where we give a PARCC test? And are we losing too much instructional time in the name of testing?” O’Neill asked at the time.
O’Neill and board member Phil Kauffman asked about exempting those students who had already taken either a PARCC or state assessment test covering Algebra 1, Algebra 2, English 10, Biology and National, State and Local Government from taking the corresponding county final exams in those classes.
No decision has been made and Bowers said school system staff will consider the changes for the 2015-2016 school year.
“The changes to the PARCC assessments are a good start, but it is not the end of the conversation about testing and its appropriate role in the education of our children,” O’Neill wrote in her blog post Thursday.
