Staffers at Dartmouth Middle School took time to celebrate the students who they called the "grittiest."

Sixth, seventh and eighth graders who experienced a 90 percentile growth in their PARCC scores last year were honored with a “True Grit” award throughout the week of Thanksgiving.

There were about 130 test takers who fell into this category. Students were served a special breakfast and visited by Principal Darren Doane.

“To get more than 90 percent growth is a big deal,” said math coach Anne Brown. “We want to celebrate that because it’s a life skill – to be persistent and continue to work hard. That would be marketable and a great skill for businesses.”

PARCC testing, or the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, was administered in spring 2015 to students in grades 3 through 8.

The state's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted on Nov. 17 to abandon PARCC and continue developing next-generation MCAS, formerly known as MCAS 2.0. According to the Board, next-generation will "utilize both MCAS and PARCC items, along with items developed specifically for the Massachusetts tests."

Dartmouth will take PARCC again next year before transitioning to the next-generation MCAS in 2017.

Brown described the PARCC exam as an “assessment vehicle of the Common Core.”

She said that PARCC, unlike MCAS, is less focused on multiple choice questions. With PARCC, a question may have eight answers and the student will have to select all the answers that apply to the question. This is different from the MCAS, which heavily features multiple choice questions as well as some short answer and open-response questions.

“I think it’s a more difficult test for the test taker because you can’t just guess,” said Brown.

PARCC was designed to be completed on a computer, but many districts were not fully equipped to handle an electronic test. Last year, students in Dartmouth took a paper-and-pencil version of exam.

While the complete version of PARCC data won’t be fully released until December, Assistant Principal Carl Robidoux thought it was a good time to celebrate student achievement.

“You gotta celebrate different things in different kids, and these are kids that improved. That’s just as important as a kid that can maintain a high level,” said Robidoux.