Schools reschedule Dr. Seuss’s birthday fests so kids can take Common Core tests
March 2 is Dr. Seuss’s birthday, or, rather, the day 111 years ago when Theodor Seuss Geisel, the famous children’s author, was born, and for years, thousands of schools around the country have celebrated the day with book readings (“Cat in the Hat, “Green Eggs and Ham,” etc.) and Seuss character costumes. This year, some of those celebrations have been changed. Why? It’s the start of the spring 2015 testing season, and at many schools students will be taking PARCC Core standardized tests instead.
For the last 18 years, Dr. Seuss’s birthday has been the occasion for theannual “Read Across America Day,” an event sponsored by the National Education Association in partnership with Dr. Seuss Enterprises. Millions of students traditionally participate as their schools host Seuss readings inwhat is billed by the NEA as the “nation’s largest reading observance.”
Many students and schools will still participate on Monday, but not as many as usual. Monday is the first day that schools can give some of the new Common Core tests, and many students will be taking the PARCC (the exam created by the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) instead of sitting down for a Seuss reading.
For example, in Illinois, North Elementary School in Sycamore held a “Cat in the Hat” celebration last week. According to the Daily Chronicle:
Reading specialist Amy Gehant and reading paraprofessional Elisa Rubeck organize the event annually as a way to mark Read Across America, which falls on Seuss’ birthday, which is Monday. This year they held the celebration early because of state-mandated testing taking place next week.
The same was true for schools in New Jersey and other states where the PARCC is starting on Monday — at least at those schools that were not closed or delayed because of bad weather.
PARCC is one of two new tests created by two multi-state consortia with some $360 million in federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education to design new accountability tests aligned to the Common Core State Schools reschedule Dr. Seuss’s birthday fests so kids can take Common Core tests - The Washington Post:
