Pitt Awarded $1.5 Million to Develop Prototype Student Assessments and Instructional Tasks for the Common Core State Standards

PITTSBURGH—The Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) has awarded a $1.5 million contract to the University of Pittsburgh to develop prototype student assessments as well as exemplary instructional tasks for the Common Core ELA/literacy state standards. The Common Core ELA/literacy state standards aim to provide a consistent and clear understanding of what students are expected to learn and are designed to reflect the knowledge and skills that young people need for success in college and careers. The contract was awarded to the Institute for Learning’s (IFL) English Language Arts (ELA) team in the University’s Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC), along with faculty members and graduate students from Pitt’s School of Education.

The prototype assessments developed by Pitt’s team will be used in requests for proposals issued by PARCC, a consortium of states working together to develop a common set of K-12 assessments in English and math; they also will be part of a national competition to develop the ELA/literacy assessments for the 24 states that have joined PARCC. The assessments will be field-tested in a substantial number of classes in numerous urban school districts. Anthony Petrosky, associate dean for academic programs in Pitt’s School of Education, is the principal investigator for the contract. 

Codirecting the project at Pitt’s IFL will be Institute fellows Stephanie McConachie, Vivian Mihalakis, and Monica Swift. Lindsay Clare Matsumura, a faculty member in Pitt’s School of Education, will direct field-site testing with the help of IFL senior product developer Pamela Goldman and LRDC research specialist Mary Sartoris. 

PARCC’s mission is to create an assessment system and supporting tools that will help states dramatically increase the number of students who graduate from high school ready for college and careers. Its goal is to provide students, parents, teachers, and policymakers with the tools they need to help students stay on track to graduate prepared for a college career.

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11/29/11/mab