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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 - October through December, 2011

  • Over 100 postsecondary faculty and staff from Florida colleges and universities convened in St. Petersburg in October to compare the current Postsecondary Readiness Competencies to the Common Core State Standards in English/ Language Arts and Mathematics. This work will inform the work of PARCC as well as postsecondary recommendations around college-ready criteria for the assessments.
  • Florida educators took part in two additional PARCC webinars that introduced the final version of the PARCC Content Frameworks in ELA/ Literacy and Mathematics. The Content Frameworks are intended to help provide a link between the Common Core State Standards and the PARCC assessments. More on the PARCC Content Frameworks.
  • 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, procurements for the Partnership will be managed through the Florida Department of Education’s Bureau of Contracts, Grants, and Procurement. Any 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.

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.

Open Solicitations

On December 30th, 2011, PARCC released the Item Development Invitation to Negotiate (ITN). The ITN lays the foundation for the major components of the PARCC assessment system as it will procure the development of English language arts/literacy and mathematics items, tasks and related materials for the mid-year, performance-based, and end-of-year assessments. The procurement 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. The document can be viewed on the procurement webpage.

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.