Every year, thousands of eleventh-grade students across the state of New Jersey take the High School Proficiency Assessment this week.

According to the State of New Jersey Department of Education, the assessment is used to determine student achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics as specified in the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards.

In a recent interview with The Glen Echo, the Director of Student Personnel Services, Mr. Larry Wolff, spoke to us briefly about HSPAs. “As always, the HSPAs are a smooth process at Glen Rock High School. The faculty is the best that I’ve ever worked with at administering the test,” he said.

But next year, 23 states – including New Jersey – are replacing the HSPA exam for the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers).

As stated by the New Jersey Department of Education, the PARCC exam builds a K-12 assessment system that builds a pathway to college and careers for all students, creates high-quality assessments that measure the full range of the Common Core State Standards, supports educators in the classroom, makes better use of technology in assessments, and advances accountability at all levels

Is Glen Rock concerned about the change?

“Not at all,” said Wolff, “because two classes from grades 5, 7, and 10 will participate in the PARCC Pilot exam, an exam to practice how smoothly the test will be run.”

“From a content standpoint, we know it’ll be harder, but with adequate time to set up and practice this year, the district is working to prepare students for the test,” Wolff said.

Students who are not partaking in this year’s exams have had the luxury of coming into school late this week, 10:45 on Tuesday, 9:45 on Wednesday, and 10:10 on Thursday.

Glen Rock High School sophomore, Maddy Doubet, said, “Even though its really nice to come in later than the juniors testing, we’ll be given a run for our money next year with a test that no one has ever taken before, but I think we’re up for the challenge.”