The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)

Posted: Thu, 10/13/2011 - 8:49am Updated: Thu, 05/02/2013 - 10:22am

In 2010, Indiana adopted the Common Core State Standards (which became known as Indiana's Common Core Standards, or INCC, upon adoption). Following the adoption of INCC, work began in several states to develop assessments related to the rigorous expectations of the new standards. Indiana joined the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) consortium soon thereafter and has been working with other PARCC states to develop and deliver new assessments starting in 2014-2015.

The skills tested by the new assessments will align with college and workforce expectations. Therefore, the assessments will benefit all Indiana students by ensuring they have the knowledge and skills needed to complete further education and training that will lead to the career of their choice.

The new assessments will also help Indiana's educators by providing timely student achievement data showing which students are on track for college and career readiness and which students need additional support and interventions.

The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) is committed to assisting and guiding schools in the implementation of INCC and the new assessments. In partnership with educators from across the state, IDOE is working to develop and share instructional and support tools for successful implementation and will host a professional development summit on the topic.

To view sample test items and learn more about PARCC, please visit the PARCC website. Enter your email address in the top right corner of PARCC's homepage to receive updates on the development of the PARCC assessments and tools.

PARCC Tools

The PARCC website will be updated to include the educator tools listed below as they are developed.

Educator Tool Description of Tool PARCC Intended Release Date
Model Content Framework
  • Serves as a bridge between the CCSS and PARCC assessments
  • Provides further insight into the CCSS
  • A voluntary resource for English/Language Arts and mathematics
 Fall 2011
Item and Task Prototypes
  • Models of innovative items and rich performance tasks
  • Prototypes will include assessment and classroom-based tasks
 Summer 2012
Model Instructional Units
  • Provide examples of classroom instructional units aligned to CCSS
  • Allow for further development and sharing across states of instructional units
 Fall 2012

High School Assessment Alignment Studies

In 2012, IDOE worked with Dr. Norman Webb to assess the alignment of the ACT and College Board suites of high school assessments. The ACT assessments of interest were EXPLORE®, PLAN®, and ACT®. The College Board assessments of interest were ReadiStep™, PSAT®, and SAT®. The results of these studies can be found below.

In 2012, IDOE worked with Dr. Kristie Speirs Neumeister, Dr. Virginia Burney, and Dr. Joceyln Holden to study the qualitative aspects of the same suites of ACT and College Board assessments. This study also includes an analysis of ACCUPLACER® and Compass®. The results of this study can be found below.

Additional Resources

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