On Thursday, May 15, American Experience (AmEx) students pilot tested for the PARCC test (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers).The examination will be replacing AIMS (the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards) during the next school year (2014-15). The online assessment tests english and literacy. The test does not contain any math, but is more in depth than previous standardized testing. Junior Mac Heaslip said, “It is better than AIMS but I would rather not take it at all.” After reading multiple passages, questions are asked which lead to an essay with a separate writing prompt. Another junior in AmEx, Morgan Henson, likes it better than AIMS as well. She described it as “more advanced than AIMS. There is a lot of reading and videos that lead to questions and essays.”

Each school in the Tempe Union School District is given a sample size of a number and age group of students to do a portion of the test. AmEx kids met the age and number requirement, which is why they were the chosen test takers.