There’s a reason that thousands of parents, teachers and students in New Jersey and around the country are up in arms about the PARCC. And despite what the pro-PARCC contingent would have you believe, those who opt out are not a group of pro-teacher lobbyists or parents of lazy students. Instead we’re a group of people concerned about the impact that excessive and unproven testing is having on the education of our children. In fact, the towns where the refusals have been highest are places like Princeton, where the parents are highly educated and very involved in their children’s education.
I am refusing the test for my own daughter, who is in fifth grade. However, that doesn't mean I'm a "helicopter mom who wants everyone to get a trophy," like Governor Christie suggests. Instead, I want my children to be in schools that stress more than what’s on the test. I want lots of science and history and arts—all things that have fallen by the wayside in many classrooms in the attempt to boost math and language arts scores assessed by PARCC. Common Core and PARCC are taking us in the wrong direction, and we’re risking turning off a whole group of future leaders, future innovators, future doctors and scientists and artists—all for a better score on a test that’s meaningless.
Here’s why I’ve chosen to opt my kid out:
• The computerized nature of the PARCC creates a host of new issues.
In the first weeks of official testing dozens of school districts reported outages, often coming from Pearson’s side—and Pearson’s customer service line even went down for several hours. Students have reported errors that crash them out of the system halfway through—or even just as they were about to input their test. PARCC requires complex computer skills like dragging and dropping and typing essays—even for kids as young as third grade—a huge bias against kids who do not have access to computers at home. Ideally, schools need time and resources to work on these skills with their students.
• PARCC seems flawed in structure and style.
The essay boxes are very small and make it very difficult to scroll back and see what you wrote before it. The questions are worded so there are multiple potentially correct answers, and kids as young as 8 are supposed to figure out which is the “most right” answer. In at least one grammar-related question I reviewed, there were two answers that seemed equally correct.
• Schools have been losing valuable educational time to prep for these tests.
My daughter’s teacher cut back on science to allow more time for building typing skills and for test prep. Other parents have been reporting that their children have missed recess, lunch and other classes to test or prep for the test.
• Pearson is monitoring your kids social media stream
In an effort to make sure no one has an unfair test advantage, Pearson has started monitoring social media for any mentions of questions/images of PARCC test questions. It's a slippery slope though for the company, as many parents see this as an invasion of privacy. While social media is public, some see this additional oversight as an overstep of boundaries in a process that already has parents on edge.
• We aren’t the only state having second thoughts about this.
States are quickly dumping Common Core and PARCC. What started as 24 states in the consortium is now down to nine.
• There’s a lot of school pressure to take the test.
Many parents are refusing this test for their children, for a variety of reasons. (We refused it purely because of our concerns about Pearson and about the quality of the test.) Our school district was accommodating, but others have tried to pressure children into taking it. Parents are being told that schools could lose their funding if they don't test 95 percent of their students, which is part of the No Child Left Behind Law. However, nine schools had participation below 95 percent in last year's ASK testing, and none of these schools have experienced federal financial repercussions to Title I funds. Still, some schools are making kids take it or to “sit and stare” in the testing room for hours on end. But no matter what your school district tells you, you absolutely have the right to refuse this test for your child.
*The views expressed in this piece are the opinions of parent Lisa Milbrand.
More on education:
What’s So Bad About the PARCC Exams?
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
How Much Does Your District Spend on Your Kid’s Education?
