The study is the first to examine whether PARCC assessments identify students who are ready for college, and it was commissioned to inform Massachusetts's decision between MCAS and PARCC¶
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Evidence · 1 study · associationalr2·q2
Currency · newest study 2015 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2018: tool and model accuracy changes quickly
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q2 i? Mathematica's study was the first to examine the extent to which PARCC assessments succeed in identifying college-ready students, and was commissioned by Massachusetts to inform its assessment choice. → Erin Dillon 2015
Evidence¶
Erin Dillon 2015¶
Erin Dillon, Ira Nichols-Barrer, Brian Gill, Kate Place. (2015). Policy Brief: Calibrating Performance Standards Across State Lines: How PARCC Predicts College Readiness. Washington, DC: Mathematica Policy Research. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/policy-brief-calibrating-performance-standards-across-state-lines-how-parcc-predicts-college
q2 · i? · associational · r2
Introduction section of the brief describing the study's novelty and purpose: it compared "how high school PARCC exams and the existing Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) predict college grades and placement in remedial courses," commissioned by the state. No effect size printed.
"Mathematica's study is the first to examine the extent to which PARCC assessments succeed in one of their major goals: identifying students who are ready for college."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- The study is the first to examine whether PARCC assessments identify students who are ready for college — related
- After adopting the Common Core in 2010, Massachusetts faced a choice between its revised MCAS test and a next-generation Common Core-designed college-readiness test — related
- More than 40 states adopted the Common Core, and many face assessment-system decisions similar to Massachusetts' — related
- In math, students meeting the PARCC college-ready standard are less likely to need remediation than students meeting the MCAS proficient standard; in ELA the standards are not statistically distinguishable — related
- PARCC sets a higher performance standard in mathematics than MCAS, while both exams predict college performance comparably — related
- In math, students meeting the PARCC college-ready standard are less likely to need remediation than students meeting the MCAS proficient standard — related
- MCAS and PARCC scores similarly predict which students need remedial coursework in college — related
- Both MCAS and PARCC assessment scores predict college readiness, with similar validity in predicting college grades — related
- PARCC and MCAS scores show similar validity for predicting college grades — related
- PARCC and MCAS scores show similar validity in predicting college grades for Massachusetts students — related
- Many state assessments incorporated more sophisticated response formats to better assess college- and career-readiness — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
first-study-parcc-college-readiness-massachusetts-decision |
title |
The study is the first to examine whether PARCC assessments identify students who are ready for college, and it was commissioned to inform Massachusetts's decision between MCAS and PARCC |
description |
The study is the first to examine whether PARCC assessments identify students who are ready for college, and it was commissioned to inform Massachusetts's decision between MCAS and PARCC |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2015 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
recheck_by |
2018 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-09 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — erin-dillon-2015 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.