Lately, the much-talked-about topic in schools has been the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, the new state standardized assessment. Haddonfield has heard from parents as well as the board of education on their thoughts on PARCC.
Now, the Haddonfield Education Association has released a statement detailing its concerns about PARCC testing. The statement is meant to be a document that states the facts, and allows the community to make their own decision on the test.
“We wanted to put out a factual statement about what we had seen in the past compared to today.
“There were a lot of opinions and misconceptions floating around, and we wanted to lay the facts and impact on the line, based on the new standardized testing,” co-president of the HEA Craig Wille said.
The statement began with the following: “HEA members maintain high standards for our students, and we value the instructional time required to do so. We value the time our district dedicates to professional development, which strengthens our curriculum and our skills. We value the time our administrators can spend with Haddonfield’s students and staff.
“The implementation of PARCC tests, however, has limited that time, and has forced public schools to dedicate far too many hours and resources to standardized testing.”
“We were looking at some of the issues of time and resources with PARCC and how the test is affecting the day-to-day life of the schools and students. We wanted people to understand what the days look like for schools on testing days,” Corinne Welsh, co-president of the HEA, said.
“The time that it takes from teachers away from students in the instructional setting is a huge impact. It affects the administration and the students,” Wille said.
A comparison, before and after PARCC, was then made to affirm their statement.
According to the statement, in previous years, there were four to five days of testing; testing occurred over one week in the spring; instruction was disrupted only in the mornings; tests were taken by using a pencil and paper in the classrooms; non-testing classes were able to utilize the internet during the test; professional development was used for staff development and curriculum work; directions and test items were verified as age appropriate; model essays and student samples were available to guide learners; and minimal test preparation was required for students.
This year, testing is eight to 10 days; testing occurs over two weeks in March and April/May; instruction is disrupted in both mornings and afternoons; testing is now computerized, which shuts down many facilities with computers, and laptop carts are unavailable for students who are not testing; non-testing classes need to limit their internet use so bandwidth can be dedicated to testing; professional development is partially replaced by PARCC proctor training; there are significant concerns about age appropriateness of direction and test items; no model essays or student test samples are available to guide learners; and multiple days of test preparation are required for students to learn how to navigate the Pearson system, especially at the elementary level, according to HEA members.
“We didn’t want to say that this is terrible or bad or good, these are the facts. We wanted to let people take the information provided and come up with their own conclusions,” Willie said.
Superintendent Richard Perry felt the HEA made good points in its statement as to the logistical challenges schools faced regarding implementation of the PARCC assessments.
However, he believes that students should participate in these assessments so the district can provide the best possible education by way of accumulating the valuable data to meet and exceed student curricular needs and goals.
“As a district, we believe that PARCC can provide valuable data in regard to components of student learning and achievement. We have had, though, a significant amount of refusals at the high school level. This may change if the state moves forward with mandating the documentation of these exams on student transcripts. These discussions are occurring at the state level,” Perry said.
So far, despite the snow and school closings last week, the district continued with PARCC testing and felt the implementation has gone pretty well so far. Welsh, also a teacher at the high school, said from a technology perspective, things have gone well and pretty smoothly.
“Administrators, teachers, students and all those involved in this testing, also including technology and maintenance staff, have done a tremendous job ensuring the successful implementation of this initiative,” Perry said.
Welsh also said she heard many juniors at the school discuss the timing issue of the test as well as having another standardized test to worry about. Juniors have SAT, ACT and AP tests to worry about, which aren’t affecting them as much right now, but in May will. In the beginning of May are AP tests, the third week of May is the second part of PARCC and later in the month is the New Jersey Biology Competency Test.
The HEA recommends those who wish to learn more to take a sample PARCC test at parcc.person.com, talk with your children’s principal and research pending state legislation limiting the impact of PARCC testing.
