Test Taking Technology Skills

  • Students will need a variety of basic technology skills to successfully navigate the PARCC assessment. These skills range from drag & drop to use of a protractor that must be dragged and rotated on the test question. The resources below will help you understand what kinds of skills students will need and provide you with resources to practice the testing platform before the assessment.

    Basic Skills Recommendations 

    • Mouse movement, click/tap
    • Scrolling
    • Drag & drop
    • Typing w/ text editor
    • Select/unselect objects & text
    • Select area in a matrix
    • Text highlighter
    • Calculator
    • Protractor & ruler
    • Video and audio player
    • Watch Testing Taking Skills Presentation 
    See a full list of the technical skills that students will need for the PARCC Assessment
     
     

    5 Steps to Preparing you School for the PARCC Assessments

     

    1. Familiarize yourself with the changes from paper-based to online assessments.

    Compare traditional question types to online assessments using this question mapping tool for elementary students and middle-school students.

     

    2. Give staff & students a practice test in the testing platform.

    Visit the PARCC Practice Test site to take samples for ELA or Math.

     

    3. Familiarize staff & students with accessibility and accommodation features.

    View the full accessibility manual here or take a practice test using large print, TTS, accommodated screen reader, ASL, or Braille versions by visiting the practice test page. 

     

    4. Prepare students by walking them through the PARCC tutorial prior to the actual assessment.

    Visit TestNav tutorial page to practice in the TestNav app.

     
     

    5. Encourage students to practice typing at home and at school.

    Visit the Typing page to find free typing resources for elementary or middle grades.

     

Questions?

  • Have a best practice? Please send them to parcc@bostonpublicschools.org ! Please include your name and school and we'll credit you on the site.