Louisiana Legislators, BESE Members, Citizens File a Public Records Request for PARCC(ish) Raw Scores
La. Superintendent John White
The following public records request was delivered to Louisiana State Superintendent John White both by messenger and by email at around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 01, 2015:
Baton Rouge, LA
For Immediate Release: Date: October 01, 2015
Louisiana Citizens Public Records Request for PARCC Data
Today a group of legislators, BESE members, school board members, educators, and citizens filed a formal public records request for the purpose of securing the release of vital data from the Common Core tests that were given to Louisiana students almost six months ago.
These public officials and citizens believe that the results of the Spring 2015 PARCC testing are in the possession of the Louisiana Department of Education and therefore constitute public records under Louisiana law.
The law provides that any Louisiana citizen over the age of 18 may request any public record and that the custodian of public records must provide such public records immediately, but at least within a period of five business days.
These citizens believe that this formal public records request is necessary because numerous similar informal requests by various citizens have either been denied or ignored by the State Superintendent.
Representative Brett Geymann, the lead author of Common Core related legislation this last session, expressed frustration that the data from the tests has not been provided to the educator and parent committee that was formed to revamp the standards:
“This last legislative session we attempted to remove the Common Core Standards from our curriculum because it was not appropriate for our school children. However, in the course of the legislative process we worked out a compromise agreement that required a thorough review of the present Common Core Standards for the purpose of developing new standards that would benefit our students. Unfortunately, now we find that the Standards Review Committee is being denied access to the test results that could help to inform their work in revising the standards. This is in violation of the spirit of the agreement. The taxpayers paid millions of dollars for these tests and we should have the results in a form that can help the revisions committee.”
Representative Schroder echoed those sentiments: “We kept our end of the bargain. Time is running out for the committee. They need the information now. We are not asking that the test itself be released. We just want the standard each question tests and what percentage of students got it right.”
BESE member, Jane Smith, a former superintendent and state legislator, pointed out that she had helped negotiate the compromise: “I have said from the beginning that I Louisiana Legislators, BESE Members, Citizens File a Public Records Request for PARCC(ish) Raw Scores | deutsch29: