Cindy Kleyn-Kennedy: Cameo goes to PARCC

link Cindy Kleyn-Kennedy

Cameo Elementary is hosting a “Night at the PARCC” for its parents this evening.

This is not a regular park with trees and grass; this PARCC is an acronym that stands for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.

A “group of states working together to develop a set of assessments that measure whether students are on track to be successful in college and their careers,” according to the PARCC website, is located at http://www.parcconline.org/about-parcc.

The states include: Arkansas, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island.

PARCC is “based on the core belief that assessment should work as a tool for enhancing teaching and learning. Because the assessments are aligned with the new more rigorous Common Core State Standards (CCSS), they ensure that every child is on a path to college and career readiness by measuring what students should know at each grade level.”

There has been a lot of information and misinformation floating around about the PARCC and Common Core, and Cameo’s parent evening is, in part, in response to the desire for more information.

Cameo principal Tony Igo described their process: “In response to a recent survey, one thing our parents wanted was to receive more communication and information, and that’s why we are doing this. We want our parents to know more about all the things we’re doing and, especially, to have as much information as possible about our upcoming new online assessment (PARCC).

Many of the Clovis schools have held similar parent evenings, orienting parents to PARCC, and Cameo has elected to have a grade level focus in theirs. The first evening (tonight) will be all third-grade parents and students, so that parents with children in more than one grade won’t have to split their time between grades.

Evenings at the PARCC for fourth grade, followed by fifth grade, will follow soon at Cameo, with similar information being shared.

Joy Martin and Kathryn Sacane, both third-grade teachers at Cameo, provided additional information: “Since third grade is the first year students undergo state testing it’s extremely important that parents and students receive a good introduction to better prepare them in what to expect. Last year we held an intro to testing in the computer lab, and it worked really well, with an incredible turnout from parents, so we decided to do it again this year for PARCC.”

Along with all of our schools, Cameo Elementary firmly believes it is critically important to provide as much information as possible to parents, to be as transparent as possible about this new online assessment. Parents are encouraged to freely explore the PARCC website themselves and take practice tests to better understand what their children will encounter.

Kofi Annan observed, “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”

Cindy Kleyn-Kennedy is the Instructional Technology Coordinator for the Clovis Municipal Schools and can be reached at:

[email protected]