Released (today) Thursday, the new time projections are higher than the estimates that PARCC issued in March of 2013: eight to 10 hours of testing. But that’s because the earlier figures reflected something different: the amount of time “typical” students would need to complete the English/language arts and mathematics tests.

The new numbers, informed by data from last spring’s field test of 1 million students, reflect the amounts of time needed to allow “virtually all” students to finish the tests.

The field tests showed that 75 percent of students finished the tests in 6½ to 7½ hours, PARCC officials said. But to facilitate “virtually all” students completing the tests, PARCC is instructing schools to allot 9¾ hours to 11¼ hours for the first operational assessment in the spring of 2015…

Here are the amounts of time PARCC projects will be needed for “virtually all” students to complete the tests:
Grade 3:
English/language arts: 4¾ hours
Math: 5 hours
Total: 9 ¾ hours

Grades 4-5:
English/language arts: 5 hours
Math: 5 hours
Total: 10 hours

Grades 6-8:
English/language arts: 5 ¾ hours
Math: 5 hours
Total:  10 ¾ hours

Grades 9-11:
English/language arts: 5¾ hours
Math (Algebra I, Geometry, Integrated Math 1 or Integrated Math 2): 5 ⅓ hours
Math (Algebra II or Integrated Math 3): 5 ½ hours
Total: 11 to 11¼ hours

The other federally funded consortium, Smarter Balanced, has not made any adjustments to its projected testing times in the wake of its field-testing experiences. The Smarter Balanced assessments are still projected to take seven to 8 ½ hours, depending on grade level, as the consortium announced in November 2012. To produce those time estimates, the consortium scaled back the number of performance tasks in the test to one in mathematics and one in English/language arts. Smarter Balanced’s original design was projected to take students 10 ½ hours or more to complete.

Even as the time estimates for PARCC and Smarter Balanced exceed what many states currently require for their state exams…
Please call Greg Lavelle and  thank him from the bottom of your heart….

Phone: (302) 478-6128