With the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exam winding down, Voorhees Township School District superintendent for curriculum and instruction Diane Young said she believes the tests have gone smoothly.
PARCC, the new twice-a-year computer based state-mandated assessment replacing the former New Jersey New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge test for grades 3–11, was administered throughout the districts schools relativity glitch free according to Young.
“You know, with technology you’ll always have glitches, but they were fixed immediately, everybody who supported they process, they anticipated there would be glitches, they knew what they were going to be and they were able to fix them in seconds,” Young said.
Young said that although a screen “might have froze here and there,” the system could easily be rebooted and because the test saves to a caching server after every few questions, answers were not lost.
“We didn’t have one kid who froze and we had to reboot him where he lost answers,” Young said. “He came back and they were there.”
According to Young the students and teachers were well prepared, and the time spent actually taking the test was minimal.
“In the past they would test for half the day with the NJASK, but today at the middle school most teachers started around 9 a.m., and by the time they got the kids logged in and everything they were done by 10:40 a.m. and on to their next class,” Young said.
At last month’s BOE meeting several parents raised concern about the new test, including what would happen to students whose parents refused to let them take the exam as well as what the data collected would be used for.
According to Young, as it is the first year the test is being administered, the district won’t be using the data for any purpose, placement or otherwise, and doesn’t expect to even have the scores returned until sometime in October.
She also said that as of March 18, 128 students had the test refused for them, which she described as a minimal number and smaller compared to many other districts.
Because of the size of the number of students who did not take the test, the school was able to put them the students in an alternative location during the test during which they could read a book or work quietly.
“When you’re talking 128, at the elementary level that could be five kids per grade level, so it really was very easy to manage,” Young said. “Some had none at a grade level, some had three.”
The next round of PARCC testing scheduled to take place from late April through May, and Young said now that the district has gone through this first round and have the infrastructure in place, it’s ready for the next set off tests
“We all feel comfortable, and I think the teachers will be much more confident administering it,” Young said.
