Day 128 - Walking Through The PARCC – Our Week One Experience

This post originally appeared on Dr. Conti's Blog

As we conclude week one of field-testing the PARCC online assessments with students across our district we would like to share some thoughts from the experience. Before getting into the actual test itself, we need to reiterate a point that we make quite often regarding our phenomenal staff and students. The professionalism of our staff and patience and determination of our students during the glitches that were encountered as we began this new process were second to none.  In addition, we are thankful for our amazingly talented IT staff which put in countless hours in the weeks leading up to testing and at the end of each day to ensure that things would go as smooth as possible for our teachers and students.

Tweet from the MA DESE regarding our efforts

In regards to how many students we tested this week, we conducted about 3,500 sessions involving over 1,800 students in grades 3 thru 7 and grades 9 and 10.  In many cases, students took multiple test sessions this week, completing two math sessions and at least one of the three ELA sessions. During this process, we had students complete PARCC field testing on iPads, Chromebooks, and in computer labs on desktop computers.

As we expected, Burlington’s technology performed extremely well. Our most common hangups were frozen screens which needed a reset of the device. In instances where there were bigger issues, we were able to get in contact with both Pearson and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and maintain an ongoing dialogue with them about issues and improvements. These conversations led to testing environments that saw far fewer technological problems with each passing day.

Tweet from Director of Technology Integration at the conclusion of week one testing.

PARCC field-testing will continue at most schools through next week and we will continue to provide updates as we proceed through the schedule.  Please remember that our intentions for taking on this endeavor are two-fold. First, we would like to provide our students with an online experience that will help them prepare for the future which will certainly include some form of online, high-stakes testing. Second, we are able to provide first-hand feedback to the Massachusetts DESE, PARCC, and Pearson that will help improve future versions of these assessments which will eventually be given to every student in the state.

Day 63 - BPS EdTech Prepares for PARCC - Dennis Villano, Director of Instructional Technology

This post originally appeared on the BPS EdTech site.

The BPS EdTech Team has worked on many important technology initiatives over the past three years. We have faced tough challenges and found some great success along the way. Our incredible IT department, instructional technology, and library team members have worked to develop a great environment for digital learning in Burlington. Each initiative has brought many long days – and even long nights – forcing caffeine to often replace sleep.

Now we are preparing for a new challenge. We are starting to plan for the administration of PARCC exams on digital devices for grades 3-10. This is not a small isolated field test – we are rolling out the exam to nearly all of the students in these grades via a combination of devices and testing environments.

Here is a look at some of the initial topics we are working on: 

Testing devices include iPads, Chromebooks, PC and Mac computer labs

We will report on the use of keyboards with iPads – a requirement of PARCC – and discuss their level of need.

Peripheral options including iPad stands and headphones

Logistics of testing sites including labs, classrooms, and shared spaces such as libraries

Use of Apple Configurator and Mobile Device Management systems for iPads

Use of the Google Management Dashboard for Chromebooks

We will even be altering network conditions to look at what various districts may encounter in an effort to truly assess the needs of PARCC testing conditions.

The New England 1:1 Summit will include sessions with our team to continue the conversation about PARCC technology readiness and the results of our initial implementation of testing.

Stay tuned to this BPS EdTech site and other sites in Burlington from Superintendent Dr. Eric Conti and Assistant Superintendent Patrick Larkin for information and updates about this new journey. We will provide details about the entire process. Ultimately, we hope to accomplish what we love to do = provide our students with the best environment possible to succeed and help other schools and districts outside of Burlington do the same.