Illinois students will get a hint about how they scored on the PARCC test — the standardized test based on the Common Core — when statewide results are announced today. State officials have warned that scores will be lower than with previous tests. But U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says it’s time for an honest assessment.
“It’s so important that we tell the truth to parents and to students about are they on track to be successful in college or not,” Duncan says. "And many states, including Illinois, dummy down those standards to make politicians look good.”
The PARCC test, Duncan says, sets a new, more realistic baseline that should inspire school districts to better prepare students for careers.
Duncan is swinging through the midwest on a Back-to-School bus tour, including stops in Williamsfield and Champaign in Illinois.
Duncan also talked about the new policy on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA.
The White House recently announced that, beginning next year, applicants can fill out the form in October, using information filled in automatically from their 2015 tax returns. Previously, they would’ve had to wait until the following January to use the 2016 tax return — and had to answer more than 100 questions manually.
“And we think just on making the forms simpler, we’ll have tens of thousands of additional young people going to college who thought they couldn’t afford it, who thought it was for rich folks and not folks like them,” Duncan says. "So we feel very, very good about this.”
