Introducing The Next Generation Of Leaders And Thinkers

From Standardized to Modernized?

Written by Jill Patel Via Blox Images
Written by Jill Patel Via Blox Images

School’s in session once again and although the time has not arrived yet, soon enough we will be hearing the cries of PARCC. Those cries do not go in vain; rather they represent the mindset of most of the parents and students within my high school and even the majority within my state, New Jersey.

PARCC, Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, is as they choose to call themselves “the next generation…of assessment.” However, don’t allow yourself to be fooled by what you hear.

The “next generation” isn’t always something positive. These tests are the result of a partnership between local educators and states working together to develop the new assessment. Essentially, what this means is that Pearson, the entity receiving extreme backlash due to major objections and concerns, in cooperation with numerous states, has developed a set of standardized assessments for grades 3-12 based on Mathematics and English. These tests adhere to Common Core standards, meaning that they are far more rigorous than previous state exams, especially in New Jersey, as they stress reading comprehension and critical thinking. We are expected to sit, hands folded, as the “well-behaved” students do, and not question it, as Pearson has been partaking in the business for decades upon decades. We are expected to allow that experience to compensate for their innumerable mistakes: Los Angeles iPad situation for which they are under FBI investigation, being sued by former employees for wrongful termination, and of course the mistake that is the PARCC. We are expected to be okay with the idea that private equity and major corporations have become a regular within our education.

If standardized testing itself already doesn’t hold enough of a negative reputation, the PARCC enhances those adverse aspects but also adds its own set of unfavorable aspects to the mix.  Save Our Schools New Jersey which is a “grassroots, all-volunteer organization of parents and other public education supporters who believe that every child in New Jersey should have access to a high-quality public education,” released a heavily viewed and quoted list of 12 Reasons We Oppose the PARCC Test:

1. PARCC is poorly designed

2. Their online testing format is problematic

3. PARCC is diagnostically and instructionally useless

4. Taking and prepping for PARCC is replacing learning

5. Distorting curriculum and teaching

6. Undermining students’ creativity and desire to learn

7. Enormous financial costs

8. Completely experimental

9. Abusive to our children

10. Worsen the achievement and gender gaps

11. Fail to improve educational outcomes

12. Brand majority of students as failures

These assessments are not personalized on a school level but on the level of a corporation. Instead of aligning this test with the needs best fit for the individual school, this common, set exam forces teachers to go out of their way and take time away from true education to prepare for this assessment. Not only do students need to learn a whole new set of material and through a different approach, but they also need to learn to apply this information on the online format of the test. We are no longer being taught and given the knowledge we should be receiving but rather now it’s about “teaching to the test.” And it will only worsen. Funding and time for the arts, music, history, science etc. has been reduced and shriveled into something meaningless and simply been replaced by this ominous assessment.

I do not want to be a statistic or a point in a data chart. I am not going to be subjected to failure in result of this poorly designed test and recorded amongst the other students who also suffer. From the words of my world history teacher, and how I’ve seen my education evolve for the worst, this test is not helping but instead hindering. Creativity is no longer considered an excellent quality, it’s being kept in the back of a student’s mind and not being given the opportunity to show. My teachers know the correct way to teach and do not need an altered and standard curriculum and assessment to help them do so. They are aware of what’s best for every student and take the time to consider that every human being is an individual and they need to be given options and opportunities as they cannot all learn in the same fashion, unlike the PARCC. I want the faith to be restored back into the teachers themselves and out of the corporations. Pearson, having never stepped foot in my classroom or having met with the students attending my specific high school, will never be aware how to teach a student in a proper beneficial way as the teachers know how to do.

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