PARCC Comes Off the Rails
The PARCC cheerleaders' arguments for their beloved test are crumbling to dust:
Yes, the PARCC is so much better than those awful, old, state-level standardized tests -- so much better that the PARCC Board is changing it after only one year!Washington, DC (May 21, 2015) — The PARCC Governing Board, made up of the state education commissioners and superintendents, voted Wednesday to consolidate the two testing windows into one and to reduce total test time by about 90 minutes beginning in the 2015-16 school year. The vote came in response to school district and teacher feedback during the first year of testing and a careful review of the test design.The changes will improve and simplify test administration for schools, teachers and students, without diminishing the goal of the assessment—to ensure every student in every school is being taught what they need to know order to be successful in the next school year and, ultimately, in college or career.[Skipping Hanna Skandera's useless propaganda... -- JJ]This year’s PARCC testing was done in two parts—the performance based testing conducted in early spring and the end-of-year testing conducted in late spring, closer to end of the school year. Five million students in 11 states and the District of Columbia completed the PARCC assessments this year.On May 20, 2015 the PARCC governing board voted to:
- Reduce the testing time for students by about 90 minutes overall (60 minutes in mathematics; 30 minutes in English language arts) and create more uniformity of test unit times.
- Consolidate the two testing windows in mathematics and English language arts/literacy (which includes reading and writing) into one.
- The single testing window will simplify administration of the test for states and schools that experienced challenges with scheduling two testing windows.
- The testing window will be up to 30 days and will extend from roughly the 75% mark to the 90% mark of the school year. Most schools will complete testing in one to two weeks during that window.
- Reduce the number of test units by two or three for all students.
It seems like only yesterday -- no wait, it really was only yesterday! -- that the PARCC folks were telling us that "PARCC assessments are designed to provide parents and teachers with a far greater level of informative and useful data to help improve student instruction."
NJDOE's head PARCC cheerleader, Assistant Education Commissioner Bari Erlichson, told us this last year:
Along with the more detailed reports for parents, teachers for the first time will have access to a database showing the specific skill students were tested on in each question and how many of their students- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/05/parcc-comes-off-rails.html
