Next week, the Commissioner of the MA Board of Education, Mitchell D. Chester, “will ask the Board to discuss and vote on [his] recommendation for the future direction of the Massachusetts student assessment program”. This entails creation of “MCAS 2.0” which would incorporate PARCC ideas, but would be controlled by the Massachusetts Board of Education vs. a private company.
A final public hearing is being held in Malden on November 16th and the BOE vote will take place on November 17th.
For detailed information about these upcoming meetings, please access this link:
http://www.doe.mass.edu/boe/docs/fy2016/2015-11/briefing.html
Please see these additional links for discussion, debate, and history pertaining to this topic:
From NPR’s Radio Boston
http://radioboston.wbur.org/2015/11/12/mcas-parcc-mitchell-chester
http://radioboston.wbur.org/2015/10/29/mcas-parcc-debate
http://radioboston.wbur.org/2015/10/28/mcas-parcc-commissioner
https://radioboston.wbur.org/2015/10/27/mcas-parcc-teachers
Other NPR stories…
http://www.wbur.org/2015/10/20/mitchell-chester-parcc-results
http://learninglab.wbur.org/topics/parcc-mcas-and-the-future-of-standardized-testing-in-massachusetts/
From the Globe…
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/10/14/parcc-better-than-mcas-measuring-college-readiness-study-shows/bjAY4kGD6oqZWVfTaMRzGL/story.html
Other related news stories…
http://learninglab.wbur.org/2015/10/28/nations-report-card-shows-massachusetts-at-the-top-but-slipping/I