New Jersey Parents Opting Out: Gates-funded Ed Trust Wants You to Stay In
PARCC testing in New Jersey is scheduled to begin March 2, 2015. The NJ PARCC testing “window” will not end in March, but will continue into April, May, and June, depending upon the grade level and whether the test is part of the PBA (performance-based assessment), which is given 75% of the way through a school year, or EOY (end of year), which comes 90% of the way into a school year.
For third grade, New Jersey schools must schedule 4.75 hours for the English language arts (ELA) PBA and EOY PARCC and 5 hours for the math PBA and EOY PARCC.
Just shy of 10 hours of schedules testing time for a third grader.
For fourth and fifth graders it is a full 10 hours.
For sixth through eighth graders, almost 11 hours.
Note that the PBA and EOY PARCC tests are summative assessments. The US Department of Education (USDOE) wanted much more testing from PARCC and its sister consortium, Smarter Balanced (SBAC).
Even the summative assessments alone are too much testing.
Too much.
Many New Jersey parents agree. They do not want their children (or their children’s schools) subjected to and driven by PARCC.
New Jersey parents are opting out of PARCC testing, and the pro-testing set is taking New Jersey parents seriously.
Consider test-score-driven reformer, Kati Haycock, founder and president of Education Trust.
New Jersey parents, Haycock has landed in your op/eds. According to NJSpotlight editor John Mooney, Ed Trust was not invited to write. It asked to do so.
New Jersey parents, Haycock isn’t liking your opt-out decisions.
She wants you to submit your children to those ten hours of PARCC testing. She is “in support of annual testing of every child” as the means to *close achievement New Jersey Parents Opting Out: Gates-funded Ed Trust Wants You to Stay In | deutsch29:
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