PARCC is the right move for students

Illinois students this year are taking a new state assessment that challenges them to think deeply, problem solve, and provide evidence of their thinking.

This is no fill-in-the-bubble test.

It will be challenging and different. It will reflect students' standing in their progress toward college and career readiness.

I say this as an educator with nearly three decades of experience working in suburban public schools and serving a diverse student population. I also say this as an educator involved with the state's Education Leader Cadre.

Students benefit when held and taught to high expectations and supported to achieve them. PARCC (the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Career) will let us know how we adults are delivering on this promise to our students.

As we sit here today, it's working: Our students are rising to meet the new, rigorous Illinois Learning Standards.

In my district, Bensenville School District 2, our third-grade students will engage in engineering design using hair dryers to assess a structure's ability to withstand wind. Sixth-graders participate in Zombie Geography, a fictitious apocalypse to understand how cultures survive.

Such problem-based learning became possible when we aligned our curriculum to the new standards. We need an assessment system that reflects the standards and informs teaching.

I'm often asked about the rigor and test time of PARCC. I respond with this analogy: When we get a driver's license, we take a multiple choice test, and then get behind the wheel to see if we can put those rules of the road into practice. This measures what we know and what we can do. In this sense, PARCC is no different.

The coming weeks will be challenging, but this is the right move for students.

Kay Dugan, Assistant Superintendent for Learning

Bensenville District 2