Maryland is a Governing State in the Partnership for Assessment
of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), a consortium of 24
states working together to develop an assessment system aligned
to the Common Core State Standards. The new assessments will be
anchored in college and career readiness; provide comparability
across states; and be able to assess and measure higher-order
skills such as critical thinking, communications, and problem
solving. The assessments will be computer-based and will include
a mix of constructed response items, performance-based tasks,
and computer-enhanced, computer-scored items. PARCC will assist
educators in the classroom by providing instructional tools to
support implementation, student achievement data, professional
development modules, and educator-led training to support “peer-
to-peer” training. K-12 educators across the consortium of PARCC
states will be involved throughout the development of the PARCC
assessments and related instructional and reporting tools to
help ens