Star-Bellied Sneetches and PARCC Testing
When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball,
Could a Plain Belly get in the game… ? Not at all.
You only could play if your bellies had stars.
And the Plain Belly children had none upon thars.
Could a Plain Belly get in the game… ? Not at all.
You only could play if your bellies had stars.
And the Plain Belly children had none upon thars.
Dr. Seuss from The Sneetches
How ironic that today, when children should have been celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday with activities to rejoice about the joy of reading, schools across America really got into the full swing of PARCC testing.
Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC)measures math and English/language arts K-12. The assessments are supposedly designed to determine if students are on track for college.
Is your kindergartener or third grader on the right college track? Is this something parents of young children should be worrying about already? Can’t everyone just enjoy their children when they are young? Won’t college come soon enough?
One of my favorite Dr. Seuss stories is called The Sneetches and it is rich with analogy about following, fitting in, and the one-size-fits-all mentality. It is also about being scorned. I thought about this story when I was reviewing all the troubling stories about the PARCC testing.
Right now it is easy to see the Sneetches story playing out across the country when it comes to public schools. The reformers want everyone on the same page doing what Star-Bellied Sneetches and PARCC Testing:
