vox.com: PARCC Tests Are “Working”!
On April 11, 2014, vox.com, a supposedly “data-driven news site started this month (April 2014) by Ezra Klein, ” posted this propagandastic wonder regarding Partnership for Assessment for College and Careers (PARCC) field testing.
The piece is entitled, Common Core Tests Are in Classrooms– And They’re Actually Working.
That depends upon what one considers “working” to be.
If “working” is the cutting of non-tested (and therefore, less valued) school courses, programs and staff in order to feed the testing monster, then yes, the “tests are working.” I teach high school English. For the past three years, at the end of the year, I have heard my administration say, “We’re going to lose another teacher,” meaning another full-time English position was to be cut. I heard that statement again several weeks ago when an administrator explained to me why my Teaching Academy course– a statewide program created over a decade ago to spark interest among high school students in teaching as a career– would be cut next year.
The day that I received the news, I saw shipments of new computers arriving in our library. It turns out that our district was required to purchase these computers from our state in an arrangement out state board of education made with some fortunate technology company.
Each computer cost the district $1100. Our school alone has seven vox.com: PARCC Tests Are “Working”! | deutsch29: