BY ERIKA NORTON
WEST MILFORD — As the New Jersey State Board of Education considers making more changes to PARCC testing, the Department of Education is moving forward with its own changes: renaming the exam and shortening the tests.
According to West Milford District Testing Coordinator Heidi Cosmi-Godau, New Jersey has ended its membership with the consortium that produced the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, and the tests will now be called the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments, or NJSLA for short.
As far as the English Language Arts and math tests, test questions will be reduced, resulting in fewer units, testing blocks and testing lengths.
Grade 3 ELA tests will be reduced by 75 minutes and change from three units to two. For grades 4-8 and ELA 10, there will be a reduction of 90 minutes and a change from three units to two.
Changes to grades 9 and 11 ELA have not yet been determined.
As far as the math tests, Grades 3-5 test questions will be reduced by 60 minutes, cutting down the number of units from four to three. For grades 6-8, test questions will be reduced by 60 minutes, but testing units will remain at three, just reduced by 20 minutes each.
Testing time for Algebra I will be reduced by 90 minutes, cutting the number of units from three to two. The units and testing times for Geometry and Algebra II have yet to be determined.
How will this affect school this year?According to Cosmi-Godau, all these assessments are still closely aligned to the New Jersey Student Learning Standards which drive instruction on a daily basis.
“So, we do not expect a change or impact to teachers’ instruction lessons or units, or student preparation,” Cosmi-Godau said. “We will continue to have collaborative conversations around curriculum and instruction, which will also include these assessments.
As far as how the district will compare the 2019 test results with the 2018 results, Cosmi-Godau said that it is difficult to predict whether there will be new benchmarks to indicate students’ level of proficiency, or whether there will be new concordance tables, or a level setting year.
Regardless, Cosmi-Godau said that district performance will still be compared to state and national norms, and we the district will continue to use this data to improve instruction.
May be more changes to comeThere are changes that did not go through the state board process or require their approval, but are being implemented by the Commissioner of Education. There are additional proposals made to the New Jersey State Board of Education, but those changes have not been approved.
These proposals include the elimination of ELA 11 and only providing an end of course math assessment for students who are in grades 9 and 10 if they are in Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II.
They would also allow English language learner students in their first year in the United States to substitute an ELA PARCC assessment with a language proficiency test.
According to Cosmi-Godau, the district expects the proposed changes, if approved, to further streamline the assessment schedule for the West Milford School District Spring 2019 assessment.
“Though a standardized assessment is important to let students, parents, staff and district administrators know how our students are doing, students have been over tested, requiring students to test even if they have met proficiency,” Cosmi-Godau said. “It can be discouraging for some students, especially our English as a Second Language students, which are addressed in the new proposals. The PARCC requires a tremendous amount of district resources.”
As the District Testing Coordinator, Cosmi-Godau said she will be working with all stakeholders to make current and, if approved, new changes to the 2019 assessments that have the least impact on student participation and continue to ensure West Milford students are excellently prepared for future college and career success.
According to the New Jersey Education Association, which supports the proposed changes, a final vote by the New Jersey State Board of Education on these changes is possible in December or January.