PARCC Releases Updated ELA Rubrics for Prose Constructed Responses

The PARCC ELA/literacy prose constructed response item rubrics have been updated with the help of educators across PARCC states to reflect lessons learned from the PARCC field test. A PCR item asks students to produce a robust written reply to a prompt. The rubrics are a voluntary resource, aligned to the CCSS, and designed to help teachers pinpoint what the different types of PCR items – research simulation, literary analysis and narrative tasks – ask students to know and do.

The rubrics provide yet another window into the development of the PARCC assessments. Teachers may elect to use the PCR rubrics in their classrooms to give feedback to their students or to discuss best practices in their professional learning communities.  

• Score points for the Conventions trait were reduced from 4 score points to 3 points. Educators saw that there was not enough difference between student responses to have both a score point of 4 and a score point of 3 and apply the rubric with reliability.
• PARCC created a separate rubric for scoring of narrative writing. The narrative criteria for Written Expression was separated so that both teachers and scorers could easily apply the correct criteria.
• PARCC added an additional bullet for score point 1 in Written Expression. During the review of the field test items, educators saw responses that were well-developed and text-based, but not clearly tied to the prompt. Language was added to score point 1 to recognize the writing ability demonstrated in this type of response.
• While the criteria themselves did not change, the descriptors for some score points were refined to clearly delineate the lines between score points and to ensure clarity of the criteria.

For more information, please visit the following URL, scroll down, and access the rubrics from the left-hand column:

http://www.parcconline.org/samples/ELA