Lane’s typical bell schedule recently switched to a block schedule for six days, March 16-24, to accommodate the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) Exam.

Though all students were affected by the schedule change, only students enrolled in Algebra I or English I — mainly 7th-9th graders — took the computer-based test.

According to the PARCC website, the test was created to assess student achievement levels on Common Core State Standards and to give schools, students, and parents a better idea about whether students are on track for college and careers.

PARCC replaces the ISAT and PSAE exams, according to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) website. It also aims to go beyond these multiple-choice tests by assessing “critical thinking, problem-solving, and analyzing sources to write arguments and informational essays,” according to the PARCC website.

Preparation for PARCC at Lane began at the end of the 2013-2014 school year, when the heads of numerous departments (English, Math, Science, Social Science, World Languages) attended a workshop where they were provided with information about the new assessment.

This test served only as a test drive for Lane students, a way to focus and centralize aspects of their curriculum, aligning them so that they correlated with future courses such as AP Language and Composition (AP Lang), a junior year course, and AP Literature and Composition (AP Lit), a senior course.

Mr. Fine, Survey of Literature teacher and a second year AP Lang Teacher, was one of the teachers who administered the PARCC Exam.

“I was excited because all of my students finished at least ten minutes early,” Fine said. “I asked my students ‘Was there anything on the test that you didn’t feel prepared for’ and they said no,” Fine said.

Elementary schools will begin to phase out the ISAT and into the transition of normalizing standardized test.

Elena Sandoval and Stephanie Alvarez contributed research for this story.