Shmoop Releases PARCC Prep, Making Otherwise Challenging Assessments a Walk in the PARCC

News provided by

Shmoop University, Inc.

Mar 31, 2015, 07:00 ET


Mountain View, California (PRWEB) March 31, 2015 -- The new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)™ assessment system takes the idea of a hands-on approach to learning and turns things up to 11 with newfangled technology-enhanced items, Common Core alignment, and plenty of opportunities for jokes about knocking it out of the PARCC. Shmoop University, a digital publisher aimed at making learning fun, has released four new products to prepare students for this serious upgrade to the basic testing environment that everyone has known and loved—or not loved—for years. In addition to various types of multiple-choice questions, Shmoop's assessments feature drag and drop, hot spot, graphic response, and equation response items.

Yes, test-taking just got fancy.

Shmoop (http://www.shmoop.com) now offers PARCC assessment prep for Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and Grade 11 ELA. Students in the 11th grade will take the Grade 11 ELA-Literacy assessment and the appropriate end-of-course math assessment—if they're in a state administering the test this year, that is. In 2015, that includes Arkansas, Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island, which comes to a total of 12 states plus D.C. for the mathletes out there.

“Students, teachers, and administrators have a huge challenge ahead of them,” says Ellen Siminoff, president and CEO of Shmoop. “Our goal is to ease the transition and give every student the chance he or she deserves to conquer the assessments.”

Shmoop’s suite of PARCC assessment prep products includes the following components:

  • A full-length summative assessment that consists of an end-of-year (EOY) assessment and a performance-based assessment (PBA)
  • An overview that explains the PARCC assessment system, including relevant technology-enhanced item types
  • A narrative that covers PARCC evidence statements and Common Core State Standards
  • Math drills grouped according to the appropriate Model Content Frameworks
  • ELA drills grouped into PARCC task models

Shmoop will decipher all those acronyms, and purchasing Shmoop’s PARCC prep provides unlimited access for 12 months. Discounts are available for schools and districts; contact sales(at)shmoop(dot)com for more information...and more PARCC puns.

About Shmoop

Shmoop is a digital curriculum and test prep company that makes fun, rigorous learning and teaching resources. Shmoop content is written by experts and teachers, who collaborate to create high-quality and engaging materials for teachers and students. Shmoop Courses, Test Prep, Teaching Guides, and Learning Guides balance a teen-friendly, approachable style with academically rigorous concepts. Shmoop sees 10 million unique visitors a month on its site and offers more than 7,000 titles across the Web, iPhone, Android devices, iPad, Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader. The company has been honored twice by the Webby Awards, named “Best in Tech” twice by Scholastic Administrator, and awarded Annual Education Software Review Awards (EDDIES) three years in a row. Launched in 2008, Shmoop is headquartered in a labradoodle-patrolled office in Mountain View, California.

PARCC is a trademark of PARCC, Inc. These products are not endorsed by nor affiliated with PARCC.

Deb Tennen, Shmoop University, Inc., http://www.shmoop.com, +1 650-488-7778, [email protected]