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Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers

 

  Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers  

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Vince Verges
Florida PARCC Project Director
325 West Gaines Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0400


Phone: (850) 245-7862

About Us

The U.S. Department of Education awarded “Race to the Top” assessment funds to the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC or Partnership) for the development of a K-12 assessment system aligned to the Common Core State Standards in English, language arts and mathematics. Florida is a member of this Partnership of 24 states, whose primary goal is to help states dramatically increase the number of students who graduate from high school ready for college and careers. Together the PARCC states educate approximately 25 million K-12 public school students in the United States. The 18 Governing States who are leading the assessment development effort on behalf of the larger Partnership include: Arizona, Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. Florida is also serving as the fiscal agent of this Partnership.

Tracking PARCC Progress

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) maintains a dedicated PARCC website. This website is meant to provide all interested parties with more information and timely updates on the progress of the 24-state PARCC consortium as it develops a next-generation common assessment system that will help ensure all students graduate from high school ready for college and careers.

If you wish to receive periodic e-mails regarding the latest information on PARCC progress in Florida, or when updates are made to this web page, you may subscribe to the Department's email list designated for this purpose. Subscribers to this list will also receive updates on Florida's Race to the Top interim assessments.

Users may also subscribe to the FDOE paperless communications list, and users may also review the FDOE Communications & External Affairs page.

Key PARCC Florida Implementation Activities - January through March, 2012

  • Florida Department of Education staff, Florida educators, and higher education faculty participated in PARCC content meetings to review and provide input on test development activities during a January 17th and 18th meeting in Orlando.
  • Department and district staff participated in the 3rd PARCC Transition and Implementation Institute on March 6th and 7th in Baltimore, MD. The purpose of these institutes is to support states in developing and executing coherent plans for implementing the CCSS. PARCC states are also able to take advantage of national and international experts in relevant areas, as well as sharing best practices among PARCC states.
  • Florida continues to be a leader with respect to technology readiness for PARCC assessments. Florida's current Computer-Based Assessments Certification Tool helped inform the development of a similar tool being used in the coming months in other PARCC states. Florida's implementation of additional computer-based assessments this year will help further prepare Florida school districts for PARCC assessments.
  • In planning implementation efforts, Florida educators and others interested in learning more about the content of the PARCC assessments may review Sections 7 and 8 as well as Appendices B and D of the PARCC Item Development procurement document.

The Florida Department of Education has remained very active in its role as a governing state in the consortium. Department staff have been heavily involved in helping to lead PARCC work, including development of the assessment and educator supports. This work has been in coordination with other relevant areas within the Department, including communications, postsecondary, curriculum, instruction, exceptional student education, language acquisition, career and adult education, accountability, K-12 assessment, and Race to the Top efforts.

Procurement for PARCC Components

Since Florida is serving as PARCC’s fiscal agent, most procurements for the Partnership will be managed through the Florida Department of Education’s Bureau of Contracts, Grants, and Procurement. Most associated procurement documents can be accessed through the Office of Procurement, Contracts & Leasing when they become publicly available. On that page is a link for vendors to register as required with MyFloridaMarketPlace if they have not previously registered. Also, vendors can elect to be placed on the vendor bid list and can elect to receive other procurement information.

From time to time, other PARCC Governing states may be called upon to assist Florida with PARCC procurements. Contacts for procurements in these cases will be provided in the section below.

All vendor contact regarding procurement for any PARCC component should occur through the formal procurement process. Any other vendor contact with Achieve staff or staff in PARCC states may jeopardize the vendor’s participation in competitive solicitations.

Solicitation Updates

On April 17, 2012, Florida posted an Intent to Award for PARCC Test Item Development. A joint award was made to both Pearson and ETS, and each contractor will involve a number of subcontractors specializing in test development and related fields. Contractors will develop English language arts/literacy and mathematics items, tasks and related materials for the mid-year, performance-based, and end-of-year assessments. The work will generate a large bank of items to support the construction of assessments for grades 3-11 which will be given in PARCC states beginning in the 2014-15 school year.

On February 3rd, 2012, PARCC released the Educator Leader Cadre, Meeting Logistics and Meeting Content Services Invitation to Negotiate (ITN). The Educator Leader Cadres (ELC) are a major part of PARCC's ongoing work to engage educators in the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the development and implementation of the PARCC assessments. The ITN can be viewed on the procurement webpage.

The PARCC Field Test Request for Proposals (RFP) has been posted by the Indiana Department of Administration.

While this is an active solicitation, any vendor questions, discussions or interactions specific to this RFP should be directed only to Nicole Kenney at the Indiana Department of Administration (contact information below).

Please direct all questions, discussions or interactions related to the PARCC Field Test RFP to:

Nicole Kenney
Deputy Commissioner, Procurement
Indiana Department of Administration
Phone: (317) 234-5584