Note: Julia Sass Rubin, founder of SOS-NJ, complains in the NJ Spotlight
comment section that the PARCC is redundant because kids already take NAEP. Why do they need to take both? Good question.
The answer is that NAEP tests are given to only a representative sample, rather than all students. According to
NAEP, “in the national-only sample, there are approximately 10,000 to 20,000 students.” In a state sample, there are about 3,000 students. If we only used NAEP, parents, school districts, and the state would have no way to measure proficiency district-to-district or school-to-school. NAEP and PARCC are apples and oranges.