A Dallas-based training organization has won a $4.3 million contract to train hundreds of teacher leaders to become experts in the PARCC assessment system and serve as its ambassadors.
PARCC, you remember, is the nickname of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, one of the two state consortia that are designing tests for the common assessments. We reported back in February that PARCC had released a procurement solicitation for an outfit to oversee the development and management of its “educator leader cadres,” a key piece of its plan to build knowledge of—and support for—its assessment system.
This piece of PARCC’s work envisions about 600 teachers, from PARCC’s 24 member states (including the District of Columbia), being immersed in the PARCC system and helping colleagues to understand and use it. They would also help the consortia design a range of instructional resources.
The group that’s been chosen to handle this work is the National Math and Science Initiative, which identifies successful training models and scales them up nationally. Its focus is programs that help teachers get ready to teach rigorous math and science courses. The NMSI is a public-private partnership, created five years ago by philanthropies such as the Dell and Gates foundations, and corporations such as Exxon Mobil Corp.
In response to PARCC’s solicitation, NMSI will train the educator leader cadres through webinars and face-to-face and online meetings, it said in its announcement about the contract. It will also have training available to all teachers in PARCC states through an online system.
The other procurements that PARCC has released are listed on a special page of its website, along with descriptions and a timeline. The other consortium, SMARTER Balanced, lists its procurements in a special page on its website, as well.