The 7th grade ELA team was discussing short cycle assessments last week and was thinking about using the PARCC practice test as an example. We chose to not subject our students to this misery.

One of the passages on the 7th grade PARCC practice test is from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I ran that text through an online readability formula. The screen capture of the result is below.

I encourage you to read this post about about reading levels and think whether or not it is necessary to subject our 12/13 year olds to three days of PARCC, which is not used to inform instruction or help the student in any way.

Bottom line: The PARCC is testing 7th graders on a 9.6 grade reading level. Why?

(continue reading at Kevin722)