For the past several days my students have endured the new
Common Core State Standards aligned PARCC assessments. After administering and
proctoring for over 8 hours in three days, I have a few takeaways from this
high stakes test which we will do all over again in May. It would be very easy
to dissect all of the nuanced problems within the test but I thought I would
start with a generic overview of the good, the bad and the ugly. This is in
large part due to the fact I am not sure what I can or cannot say about the
test for fear of violating the consent form all staff had to sign. :)
The Good
I feel it fair to say the test itself presented little
overall difficulty for my students. They seemed to navigate the controls with
relative ease and many of them finished with ample time to spare in what I
would consider generous testing time frames. Many of the students reported they
enjoyed it better than the old “fill in the bubble with a number 2 pencil”
tests which were the predecessor. If I had to estimate the average student was
able to finish most of the tests in around 20 minutes despite being given
anywhere from 60-90 minutes for each test.
The Bad
The bad of the PARCC test is that we are using it all
together. Over the course of two tests (Performance Based and End of Year)
there is massive loss of instructional time. Depending on your level of
technology, the tests are taking schools weeks to administer. For schools
testing on devices, students and teachers are unable to use any technology
during these time frames due to the test monopolizing their use. What is
surprising is we are not using other nationally normed tests which take a
fraction of class time to administer and get feedback.
The Ugly
Another ugly of PARCC testing is really not specific to
PARCC at all but high stakes testing in general. Schools have pep rallies and
send home special instructions for the week of testing. Teachers and
administrators reach out to the community and ask for children to be well fed
and rested. They even go so far as to outlaw homework to keep the children’s
stress or anxiety levels low and therefore prepped for testing. Some will have
special parties and treats geared towards keeping kids positive and happy for
testing week. What is ugly about this to me, is why are we not doing these
things every day? Why do we put extra emphasis on the stress levels and health
of a child during testing week? What are we doing to engage with parents and
kids to promote positive health for kids regularly? Also, why do we have pep
rallies and other gimmicks to attempt to convince kids the tests actually
matter?
I realize a world without standardized testing may be as
possible as a world of hover boards and flux capacitors. However, what about
engaging in conversations about the health of kids more than during testing
week? Why not limit the testing time period to the absolute minimum? Let’s be
mindful of the amount of instructional timing lost and resources spent due to
testing. Is testing the worst thing we have in schools? Not by a long shot.
However, we can certainly look at the way in which it is used and make it
useful to students and learning rather than companies and politicians.
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