A state-led testing consortium is inviting public comment on two sets of “model content frameworks” in mathematics that aim to serve as a “bridge” between the Common Core State Standards and the aligned assessments under development.
The voluntary resources from the 24-state Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) are offered as a way to help curriculum developers and teachers as they work to implement the new standards, as well as to inform the development of item specifications and blueprints for the forthcoming PARCC assessments.
In the case of the grades 3-8 assessments, this represents the second round of public comment, according to a press release. (The first was last August.) In addition, PARCC is seeking comments on what it describes as newly created materials that are now included with a revised framework for high school mathematics, the release says.
“Based on feedback gathered over the academic year, PARCC states have created materials that provide additional specificity around six high school courses,” the release says. “The newly revised high school Model Content Frameworks detail the standards, or parts of standards that make up the two course sequences and would be assessed in each course by the PARCC assessments.”
Unlike in grades 3-8, where the content standards are organized in a yearly sequence, at high school they are organized by conceptual categories, such as functions or algebra. The standards outline two pathways for high school math courses: one based on the traditional trajectory with discrete classes in Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2; the other with an integrated approach with courses in Mathematics 1, 2, and 3.
The PARCC consortium is developing separate assessments for the two different high school pathways.
The public-comment survey on the grades 3-8 and high school documents, accessible online, is open until July 11.
PARCC is one of two state testing consortia and is managed by Achieve, a Washington-based nonprofit group that also managed the process of developing the common-core standards.