The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a consortium of states that is developing new assessments for mathematics and English language arts based on the Common Core State Standards. The [Page 1221]assessments are administered in Grades 3 through 8 and high school in states that have selected PARCC as their assessment system. PARCC assessments measure whether students’ performance is on track for them to succeed academically in K–12 schools and ultimately in college and careers.

PARCC tests are designed to measure deep thinking across standards. The tests measure not only lower level knowledge and skills, which characterized many state assessments in the past, but also critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication. The tests are administered annually during a window of approximately 30 ...