The world of education policy wonks has been waiting with bated breath to learn whether State Commissioner Mitchell Chester would choose to stay with the state’s test called MCAS or to adopt the Common Core PARCC test (Chester is chair of the PARCC board).
Chester answered the question by proposing to merge the two tests and create a hybrid!
No one actually knows what this means or how it will work. Will it satisfy all parties or make everyone angry?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It might depend on how important it is to all of Massachusetts to let Mitchell Chester save face
LikeLike
While all other states are busy “rebranding” to keep the same junk but take the PARCC name off, he wants to add the PARCC name to something that isn’t PARCC.
LikeLike
Will that give them better gas mileage?
LikeLike
The labradoodle? The M-Parkus?
LikeLike
The M-CCRAP.
LikeLike
Yes!
LikeLike
Which testing agency writes/grades the MCAS?
LikeLike
I really don’t get it. So he wants a PARCC test that the state makes? I fail to see what part of PARCC they are going to “keep” that will make it so much better than existing PARCC exams – just because the state has control of the questions, if they are still the same narrow misleading crap, it’s still crap. Just Massachusetts owned crap.
LikeLike
Great idea Mitchell. Will it be taken on-line using No. 2 pencils?
LikeLike
Today I received the results of my daughter’s MCAS from last year (5th grade). She scored “advanced” in ELA, math and science. She is not advanced! She is on grade level. Her teachers have confirmed this with me. But she is thrilled. ( I would not bother to share her results with her, but her friends talk about it at school.) I am trying to fake happiness, although she knows I put no stock in the test.The same thing happened in 4th grade. In 3rd grade she scored proficient. What will happen if she has to take the PARCC and does not do well? She is a very serious student.
LikeLike
I should have added that she just got her first 6th grade report card and got “advanced” in Spanish. The rest was “satisfactory.” I believe the report card.
LikeLike
What do you get if you cross PARCC and MCAS?
Mitchell Chester.
LikeLike